Nicole Stout, Senior Director Survivorship and Wellness at American Cancer Society, shared a post on LinkedIn by Together for Supportive Cancer Care, adding:
“If 2 in 3 patients say they’ve never heard of Supportive Care, then we can’t expect patients to ask for it! We have to provide the interventions when the need arises! That means we don’t wait to be told about a problem, we proactively monitor for problems to arise…because with cancer treatments, it’s not if, but when!
The health care delivery system has to position interval assessments to identify when needs arise. We have to ask the questions and we have to position the supportive resources in real time.
- Do we expect patients to tell us they have clinically meaningful fatigue and would like a referral to an exercise specialist
- Do we expect patients to tell us that they are in a financial death spiral and can’t put food on the table
- Do we expect patients to tell us they have disabling anxiety.
If we wait for patients to tell us, we miss the earliest opportunity for intervention. If we wait for patients to ask for support, many never will, because:
‘cancer sucks and I’m just putting up with the suck’ or ‘Its not my doctors job to deal with my family issues’ or ‘We don’t want to be a bother’ or ‘we just thought it would get better after treatment’
Each of these statements I have heard from the mouths of patients in need, patients who were afraid or concerned that asking would make them seem weak, unable to tolerate treatment, or not living up to the docs expectations.
A system of supportive care is one that walks alongside the patient and puts the right resources, subspecialist, interventions, etc in front of the patient at the right time.
We know the risk factors associated with every treatment prescribed! Every one! When we anticipate, when we use interval prospective surveillance to identify emerging issues, we provide the support needed, when it’s needed, before the patient even has to ask. Doesn’t that seem great?”
Quoting Together for Supportive Cancer Care’s post:
“We’re working across sectors to close the gap between need and access by advancing smart policies, driving new research, and engaging more employers.
2 in 3 patients say that they haven’t heard of Supportive Cancer Care. That means missed opportunities to improve quality of life, reduce avoidable emergency room visits, and lower costs for everyone touched by cancer and the entire healthcare system.
Supportive Cancer Care is essential to making cancer care more complete, more equitable, and more responsive to the realities patients and families face.”
Other articles featuring Nicole Stout on OncoDaily.