‘Ad hoc’ mental care for cancer patients

SERVICES to treat psychological distress in cancer patients are still largely unstructured, under-resourced and delivered in an ad hoc fashion, a conference for breast cancer survivors will hear today.

The National Cancer Control Strategy, published in June 2006, recommended the provision of dedicated, multi-disciplinary, psycho-oncology services in the eight designated cancer centres.

When the report was published the Department of Health tasked the Health Service Executive with ensuring that access to comprehensive psycho- oncology and psychosocial support is provided for cancer patients and their families to identify and manage stress.

The Irish Cancer Society has warned the need for these services is increasing as more people are being diagnosed with cancer and more people with the disease are surviving longer.

The society’s patient support groups manager, Olwyn Ryan, speaking in advance of today’s conference in Croke Park, said a cancer diagnosis has the potential to result in marked psycho-social distress and life disruption.

While many patients cope well and resume normal mood and functioning within a year after the completion of their medical treatment, a high proportion develop significant psycho-social distress, she said.

“Most busy oncology services are not set up to reliably detect these distressed patients.”

Ms Ryan said while some hospitals that cater for a large number of cancer patients provide psycho-oncology services, with the exception of the dedicated service at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, such services were usually ad hoc, unstructured and under-resourced.

In line with the recommendation in the National Strategy for Cancer Control, the Irish Cancer Society advocates that all cancer patients be screened for distress at their initial visit to the hospital and during treatment.

Professor of psychology and psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles, Annette Stanton, a key speaker at today’s conference, said: “Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be a frightening and unexpected event that challenges an individual’s core assumptions about the world and one’s sense of meaning, mastery and self-esteem.”

Around 150 women who have had breast cancer or are being treated for the disease are expected to attend the free conference hosted by Action Breast Cancer, a programme of the Irish Cancer Society in Association with Reach to Recovery.