Resources and Support

The Post-Lung Transplant Support Program

The Post-Lung Transplant Support Program affords our patients to the opportunity to create a community amongst themselves in a space supported with a social worker. Through the use of Zoom, open peer support groups are held on a weekly basis for transplant recipients and twice a month for care partners. These groups are offered on a drop-in basis and individuals can attend as often as they like.

How Can a Support Group Help?

Peer support groups are evidence-based in promoting positive mental health and long-term health outcomes. Some of these outcomes include: increased hope, feelings of connection and the ability to normalize the experience. These groups allow recipients and care partners to talk openly and freely, provide one another with support and encouragement, and share anecdotal tricks and tips that have helped them throughout recovery and life after transplant. As transplant recipients, it gives them the opportunity to be the expert in their experience and recovery.

In conjunction with peer support groups, each month there are group meetings featuring members of the transplant team lending their expertise to give presentations on medical topics or fielding a question & answer session for patients and their families. A new narrative medicine group has been added to the monthly schedule to allow recipients and care partners a different way to process their experiences, through the use of writing and drawing.

In addition to group activities, interested recipients are provided with mentorship opportunities to connect with and provide support to those that are in the evaluation phase of transplant or waiting for transplant.

Lung Transplant Patient Education Seminar

Columbia provides two-hour educational seminars that offer invaluable information to help transplant patients and their loved ones learn what to expect. These seminars are held approximately three times per month, and lung transplant candidates are required to attend 12 lectures per year as part of their preparation. Our lung transplant team members provide interactive lectures about:

• Organ donation
• Post-transplant medications
• Exercise
• Organ rejection
• Psychological factors
• Nutrition
• Research in transplant
• Ethics
• Infection control

Lung Transplantation Patient Guide

It's important for you and your family to prepare for your upcoming transplant procedure, and to know what to expect regarding follow-up visits, medications, and other lifestyle issues after receiving your lung transplant. Columbia Surgery has developed a Lung Transplantation Patient Guide that can help answer your questions and let you know what more about what comes next.

Explore the Lung Transplantation Patient Guide