Delivery of Psychosocial Care in Oncology Summit

 J Clin Pathways. 2023;9(4):15.

When patients receive a cancer diagnosis, every facet of their life—physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial—is impacted, and without appropriate psychosocial support, that burden can be extremely heavy. While psycho­social distress screening is mandated in cancer programs by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer,¹ service-delivery models vary and are largely dependent on the availability of staffing and funding. Furthermore, in the post- COVID-19 health care landscape, the need for psychosocial care in oncology has transcended the needs of patients and their families, as supportive care to address emotional distress and burnout is urgently needed for cancer care professionals.

To explore the current state of oncology supportive care, ACCC—with its partners, the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS), and with support from BeiGene—held a multistakeholder meeting, “A Call to Action: Delivery of Psychosocial Care in Oncology Summit,” on March 8, 2023, in Washington, DC. Invitations were extended to key leadership representatives of advocacy organizations, academic medical centers, and community care programs. Its aim was to develop priorities and actions to address barriers to access and delivery of psychosocial care in oncology.

The summit included a general session, two 30-minute breakout sessions, and a call-to-action wrap-up. The frame­work was designed to utilize experts to develop priorities and potential actions while onsite, then use these recommendations as a catalyst for a greater, national discussion over the coming months.

Following the breakout sessions, participants reconvened to view the results of their work: 21 actionable ideas that spanned the top challenges of access and delivery of psychosocial care in oncology. While these ideas will lay the groundwork for future planning of education and advocacy initiatives, as a group, summit participants voted and selected the following top two priorities to develop into an immediate call-to-action:

1. Promote collaborative care and integrative models. The impact of the collaborative care model2 initiative would serve to ensure oncology patients and providers receive the appropriate psychosocial care they need, address current logistical and operational challenges with an effective model, and reduce role strain and staff burnout.

2. Develop standards for a culture of care. To create an effective action plan for developing standards to create a culture of care and reduce staff burnout, participants agreed on the need to identify current best practices among cancer programs. One of the suggested steps was to normalize health care professionals seeking mental health care (eg, virtual fireside chats modeling vulnerability, creating safety in conversations). ACCC started this important conversation in episode 114 of its CANCER BUZZ podcast: “Cancer Care Team Mental Health: Normalizing Helpers Seeking Help.” Listen today at accc-cancer.org/podcast.

Visit the ACCC website to access the full executive summary, including a list of the top barriers to access and delivery of psychosocial care, and other resources.