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Jennifer Bires: Patients Carrying Private Fears They Were Too Overwhelmed to Share

Jennifer Bires/LinkedIn

May 1, 2025, 20:49

Jennifer Bires: Patients Carrying Private Fears They Were Too Overwhelmed to Share

Jennifer Bires, Executive Director at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, shared on LinkedIn:

” ‘I thought I had to suffer alone.’

No one should ever feel that way.

If you’ve worked in oncology – or walked beside someone through a cancer diagnosis — you’ve heard it before. Patients carrying private fears they were too afraid, too ashamed, or too overwhelmed to share.

‘I didn’t know who to ask.’
‘I didn’t want to bother my doctor.’
‘I thought it was just something I had to live with.’

A new study gives me cautious hope that we can finally start doing better.

Researchers tested a ChatGPT-based counseling tool with newly diagnosed cancer patients and found:

Patients who received AI-driven emotional support had lower anxiety and lower depression before their second chemotherapy cycle.
In fact, ChatGPT use was the strongest factor linked to reducing anxiety.

But what struck me most were these details:

27% of patients asked about sexual health through AI – questions they never dared to ask their doctors.
30% asked about supplements and vitamins the same way.

When patients are given a safe, nonjudgmental space, they open up. They ask the hard questions. They reach for the help they’ve needed all along.

Cancer care must go beyond managing the disease. It must meet the human inside the diagnosis. And right now, we don’t have enough trained mental health professionals to meet the need and cost, time and stigma are barriers.

AI won’t replace human compassion. But it might just be the bridge a desperate patient needs to feel heard, to feel less alone, to begin to heal emotionally – not just physically.

Every patient deserves that support.
No one should have to suffer in silence.

I’ll post the full study link in the comments.

If you work in oncology, mental health, or digital health.

What’s one small thing we could do today to make emotional support more accessible for patients?

I’d love to hear your ideas.”

More posts about Jennifer Bires on OncoDaily.

From Silent Struggles to Deep Emotional Roots

You can see “Global Cancer Movement: Fear of Recurrence in Cancer – Emotional Impact and Patient Support” episode on OncoDaily,

In his talk for the Global Cancer Movement, Adrian Pogacian dives deeper into this reality, focusing on fear of recurrence — a persistent, often unspoken emotional burden. From fear to anxiety, depression, even suicide risk, his message is clear: emotional healing must be part of cancer care.