Psychosocial Supportive Care - An Effective and Integrated Team Approach

Psychosocial Supportive Care - An Effective and Integrated Team Approach, is the title for my talk in a few weeks at the APOS (American Psychosocial Oncology Association) AGM and Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. We hear more and more about the necessity for intra-professional supportive care. Yet, how psychosocial supportive care can be fully integrated is little understood and infrequently practiced. Can there be an integration of all practices throughout the cancer continuum (transdiscipline cancer care)?

One of life’s singular joys has been to be a practitioner with an academic background as part of a team in a small but busy centre. Disciplines working in a coordinated manner were built into the treatment design. Without a blurring of professional boundaries, all the delivery has integrated services usually associated with supportive care – palliation, spiritual care, counselling, social work, patient groups, advocacy, nursing, telemedicine, cultural and religious diversity, survivorship. This is framed by concerns for a cost effective patient centred practice.

Can supportive care teamwork be effective in a time of specialties? The base of integrated work will be discussed. Above all else, can extensive supportive care assist oncologists in their medical practice, cause changes to the patients’ QoL and have a positive outcome in healing – all while having significant cost-offsets.

Insights will be shared as to how the radiation and medical oncologists meet together with the other professional team members as new patients are presented. What is expected from the social worker to spiritual care to the music therapist to dietician? A unique supportive care assessment tool ("The 4C's") has become part of each patient’s chart.

This model integrates psychosocial research and practice in quality cancer care. It is hoped that oncologists, clinicians, and supportive care professionals will be able to reflect on their own practices and determine how their medical culture can meet new standards of integrated teamwork whole patient care.