TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation
Offering Support: Janae Finley, a physical therapist at TurningPoint, measures a patient’s range of motion. Photo credit: contributed.
Jill Binkley survived breast cancer twice. A double mastectomy left her shoulders stiff, though, and limited her range of motion. Routine tasks – combing her hair, lifting a mug, holding a child – proved difficult. She looked for a physical therapist and discovered a gap in services for the unique needs of breast cancer survivors. So she did some research to develop her own evidence-based regimen.
In 2003, she founded TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation, the only nonprofit of its kind in the Southeast, which now serves as a model for other facilities across the country. TurningPoint has served more than 40,000 people; no one is turned away.
“We address the holistic needs of each patient, recognizing that physical, emotional and psychological well-being are all interconnected aspects of healing,” says Executive Director Lois Rusco. TurningPoint, which has two clinics in Metro Atlanta, offers customized physical therapy, massage, counseling, nutritional guidance, and screening and management of lymphedema, the swelling that can occur in survivors’ arms. “Women – and we also treat men – receive a lot of physical and emotional support to get back to normal,” Rusco says.
Research also shows disparities in survivorship for Black and LGBTQ patients, so the organization works to reduce barriers to care with two programs: the Atlanta Initiative and the Georgia Outreach Initiative, which expand resources to underserved communities. The former focuses on Downtown and south Atlanta and the latter on more rural areas outside Metro Atlanta.
“Active engagement in rehabilitation and exercise activities [may] reduce these painful issues and dramatically improve quality of life,” Rusco says. “Just as importantly, they [may] prevent the recurrence of cancer.” 
