Support Beyond the Diagnosis: How Benefits Can Help Employees Facing Breast Cancer

In Canada, 1 in 8 women will learn they have breast cancer in their lifetime. It’s a shockingly high number and one that deserves pause. A breast cancer diagnosis can affect virtually every part of someone's life - their physical and mental health, finances, family responsibilities, and their ability to work. Every October, the Canadian Cancer Society shines a spotlight on breast cancer and everyone who is affected by it through Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

For employers, there’s an important question to ask: what happens after an employee tells you they have cancer? Thinking considerately about what support your offer is critical to caring for your employees. Supporting an employee through cancer isn't about treating them differently because they have cancer. It's about making sure the benefits and workplace supports already available to them can actually work when they need them most.

The role of early screening

Workplace support can begin before someone even needs to make a claim. Employers have a unique opportunity to help reach employees with awareness campaigns - not only about what benefits are available to them, but also about how those benefits can improve their lives and protect their futures. 

Employers can do that by encouraging employees to understand recommended screening guidelines in their province and make sure they know what preventative services their benefits cover. They are also responsible for building a workplace culture where taking time off for appointments isn’t treated as an inconvenience. While employers certainly shouldn’t monitor or manage their employees’ screening, they do have a role in creating awareness, increasing accessibility and removing barriers.

Benefits can help with more than treatment

Cancer treatment can involve significant medical costs, including drugs and support used alongside or following primary treatment. Your benefits plan can provide much more than reimbursement for medical expenses. It can also help employees access treatment, manage the financial and practical consequences of illness, take time away from work when needed, and importantly, find their way back to work when they're ready.

Of course, having a benefits plan doesn’t mean every treatment is covered, but employers can make sure employees know where to find answers about what is and what isn’t. They can also help them navigate when prior authorization is applicable and understand other plan details or limitations. Employers can also help their people navigate short- and long-term disability coverage when treatment or recovery affects someone’s ability to work. 

Many people in your organization might play a role in supporting an employee through a diagnosis, including your Benefits Administrator, your HR team, the employee themselves, as well as healthcare providers and disability-management professionals. While they all have different roles, a good process helps the employee understand who they should go to and what happens next rather than leaving them to navigate a complicated system while they're already dealing with a diagnosis.

Oncology-related support

Some insurers are expanding oncology-related supports beyond traditional medical coverage. For example, in Beneva announced in June 2026 that cooling caps used during chemotherapy would be covered under its group insurance plans at no additional cost as of September 1. It also introduced a self-service toolkit for people affected by cancer and their loved ones, along with a workplace health toolkit for employers. 

This example is a useful reminder for employers to ask what's actually available through their carrier. Some questions that you could ask include: 

• Does our provider offer oncology support?

• Are there navigation or counselling services?

• Are there practical resources for employees and caregivers?

• Are there newer treatment-support benefits we aren't aware of?

• Do employees know how to access them?

Don't forget the people around the employee

Cancer affects families and caregivers, too. An employee might be receiving treatment while they are also: caring for children, relying on a partner or family member, helping an aging parent, managing household responsibilities, and dealing with financial uncertainty. Supporting the employee doesn’t always mean supporting them alone. It is useful, and encouraged, for employers to also look at their benefits plans and consider what support is offered to help family members too. This might include EAPs, counselling, financialor legal support, caregiver resources or family/dependent coverage. 

Coming back to work

Returning to work isn't necessarily the moment when the cancer journey is “over.” An employee may have finished active treatment but still be experiencing fatigue, pain or physical limitations, cognitive changes (“chemo brain”), emotional distress, ongoing appointments, medication side effects, anxiety about returning and uncertainty about what they can manage when they do. Successful reintegration may require flexibility, communication and adjustments. 

Start the conversation early but don’t rush it

The return-to-work conversation can happen before the employee is ready to return, and it can happen multiple times. This may help them feel more comfortable about what a return to work will actually look like and reduce uncertainty in a time that is likely full of it otherwise. Your goal with these conversations isn't to pressure them into setting a firm date; it's to help both the employer and the employee understand what a sustainable return might eventually look like for them. 

Build a plan around capacity

Having a return-to-work plan can support employees navigating a lot of change and difficulties following a cancer diagnosis. However, these plans can’t be one size fits all. They need to be based on the actual capacity of the individual, not assumptions or generalizations. A good return-to-work plan might involve: 

• reduced hours initially

• gradual increases in workload

• modified duties

• flexibility around medical appointments

• remote or hybrid work where appropriate

• additional breaks

• temporary changes to physical or cognitive demands

• regular check-ins

Importantly, the plan should be able to change because someone's capacity can change from week-to-week. A “successful” return isn't necessarily one where the employee gets back to their old schedule as quickly as possible; it's one that can be sustained.

Give managers guidance too

Managers often want to help - but don’t know how. They worry about what to say, which questions are appropriate to ask and how much to ask, whether and when to check-in, and what information they are entitled to know. They also often struggle with how to balance compassion with workload expectations. 

Offering support and training to managers can help them navigate a situation that is also difficult for them. The Canadian Cancer and Work Charter offers a practical resource library - with over fourteen toolkits - all about cancer in the workplace. A simple guiding principle might also benefit managers: you don't need to know someone's diagnosis or medical journey to support their return to work; you just need to know what they need to do their job safely and sustainably. 

Consider workplace culture

However, benefits support is not enough. A comprehensive benefits plan can't compensate for a workplace that makes someone feel guilty for being sick, and an empathetic manager can't fix a benefits plan that leaves an employee struggling to understand their coverage. The two need to work together. Benefits can provide a safety net for employees, but workplace culture determines whether people feel safe using it.

That means employers should think about:

• how employees access benefits

• how disability leaves are communicated

• whether managers understand the process

• whether employees know who to contact

• whether returning employees have somewhere to turn

• whether flexibility is actually available in practice

Support doesn't end when treatment does

A benefits plan shouldn't only show up when someone submits a claim, because support doesn't end when treatment does. For someone facing breast cancer, meaningful support might look like access to medication, financial protection during a leave, resources for their family, practical oncology support – and a workplace willing to meet them where they are when they're ready to return.

If you're not sure what cancer-related supports are built into your benefits plan – or what your organization should have in place to support an employee through a leave and return to work, it's worth taking a closer look at your plan before you need it.