Psychosocial oncology services in New South Wales

Abstract

There is limited published evidence about how psychosocial services should be organised or routinely integrated into cancer services to ensure that cancer patients receive appropriate psychological, social and emotional support during periods of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. This paper reports on a survey of 26 oncology services in New South Wales, Australia, to examine the current provision of psychosocial oncology services. The aim of the study was to gather baseline data and information about the provision of services and to identify significant challenges associated with the development and implementation of psychosocial oncology services. A total of 42% of staff at psycho-oncology services reported they could provide adequate psycho-oncology services, but 58% of sites said they could provide either only limited (27%) or very limited (31%) services. We found that services frequently identified challenges such as insufficient funding to employ skilled staff to provide psychosocial interventions, inadequate data to demonstrate the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions and, at times, lack of space to allow privacy for patient consultations. Future needs identified were strategic planning of psychosocial oncology services as part of broader cancer service plans, leadership of psychosocial oncology services, cohesive teams using agreed patient pathways or tools and integration into multi-disciplinary cancer teams.

Preferences for support services among adolescents and young adults with cancer or a blood disorder: A discrete choice experiment

“…Finally, Rankin et al [7] concluded that the challenge most commonly reported by providers was having to provide patient care across a large geographical area. A review of rural and regional cancer services reported over half of participating cancer services identified an urgent need for improving psychosocial services [37].…”

“…A recent study by Rankin et al [7] presented an overview of selected psychosocial oncology services in NSW and identified the challenges faced by these services. Less than half of staff surveyed said there was adequate provision of psychosocial support, with the majority of sites reporting that they could only provide limited support services.…”

“…There is considerable evidence demonstrating the benefits of psychosocial interventions in reducing morbidity and improving quality of life of cancer patients [3][4][5]. However, there is limited published evidence pertaining to the types of services, particularly social and emotional support required during periods of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up [6,7].…”

“…The study by Rankin et al provides a fascinating insight into how oncology support services are provided in Australia [7]. However, the study is limited because it focuses entirely on the views of the health care provider rather than the views of the patient or carer.…”

An invisible patient: Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on caring for adolescents and young adults who have a sibling with cancer

“…This is complicated by the general absence of AYA siblings from hospitals, and the transport burden placed on parents if siblings are to access hospital-based services (Alderfer et al, 2010;Patterson, Medlow, & McDonald, 2015). While some guidelines and policies acknowledge the need to extend psychosocial services to the patient's family caregivers, and beyond times of crisis to the broader cancer trajectory(-Psychosocial management of AYA cancer patients Working Group, 2011; Rankin et al, 2011), a study of 26 oncology sites in New South Wales found that less than half were providing family therapy (Rankin et al, 2011). With this issue compounded by poor structural definition and integration of psychosocial oncology services, it is unclear how the need to extend support to families of AYAs with cancer will translate into family-focussed care, and how AYA siblings will fit into these new services (MacKay & Gregory, 2011).…”