Tess Thompson brings social work perspective to clinical setting

Social work researcher Tess Thompson’s academic journey might look a bit unorthodox. She went from studying English at the University of Oxford to — years later — working with patients at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

But a common denominator connects the work.

“I think the thread that ties my work together is my interest in stories and hearing people’s stories,” Thompson said. “I always had an interest in fictional stories but also being able to use real-life stories to try to make people’s lives better.”

Thompson’s winding path led her to Carolina in 2024, where she became an assistant professor at the UNC School of Social Work and a member of UNC Lineberger. The highly collaborative role represented a new partnership between the two units, which led to the hiring of both Thompson and social work colleague Bridgette Thom.

In her position at Carolina, Thompson looks at cancer treatment through a social work lens. She studies the social context of cancer prevention and control, the importance of social support and the effects of unmet social needs — like food or transportation — on outcomes for patients and caregivers.

The work allows her to meld her passion for storytelling with a data-driven approach she cultivated while earning her master’s in public health and doctorate in social work from Washington University in St. Louis.

“I really like moving back and forth between qualitative and quantitative research,” Thompson said. “With qualitative interviews, you do get to hear people’s stories. You get to hear the tone of their voice as they talk about what cancer means to them. It’s wonderful to have that in-depth knowledge about people’s lives, and it’s always such an honor to be trusted with that.

In her graduate training, she also did quantitative research. “I developed an appreciation for the power of statistics and being able to synthesize data from large numbers of people to be able to look at larger patterns,” she said.

Last year, Thompson launched a new study that examines how unmet social needs for caregivers might impact patients with gynecological or breast cancer. The multidisciplinary study includes collaboration from the UNC School of Medicine’s Dr. Victoria Bae-Jump and Dr. Jeffrey Aldrich as well as Natalicio Serrano from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and psychology and neuroscience professor Thomas Rodebaugh.

The project is enrolling pairs of newly diagnosed cancer patients and their caregivers. Thompson and her team will survey these pairs over multiple points in time, assessing whether 10 different social needs are met or unmet and also evaluating depressive symptoms. Thompson will also interview a subset of these caregiver-patient pairs to incorporate a qualitative approach to these topics.

“In my current study, we’re looking at unmet social needs like food and housing and transportation, and there hasn’t been a lot of research examining how caregivers’ unmet needs may affect the patient, especially over time,” Thompson said. “There’s still so much more research to be done.”

The research will help bring that social work perspective into the clinical setting.

“Some of my social work colleagues just kind of laugh, because it seems so clear from a social work perspective, that, yes, caregivers’ needs do affect the patient,” Thompson said. “But having empirical data can really help make the case for integrating caregiver interventions into clinical practice.”