The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer

By

Professor Suzanne Chambers AO PhD RN FACHP MAPS
Professor Jeff Dunn AO PhD FAICD

"Eloquently written by international doyens of psycho-oncology this must-use guide is a comprehensive tool for all health professionals involved in cancer care.”

- Sandro V PorcedduBSc, MBBS (Hons), FRANZCR, MD, Director, Radiation Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Professor, University of Queensland, Professor, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

      
The psychological impact of a diagnosis of cancer is well recognised — up to one in four people with cancer will experience clinically significant distress. Yet many cancer patients and their families find personalised psychological care difficult to access.

The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer cost-effectively addresses this unmet need by extending access to psychological care within everyday oncology practice. It supports a range of health professionals with practical guidance and patient resources to increase their confidence in recognising and responding to their patient's mental health concerns. Using a stepped-care model of psychosocial cancer care, the Guide shows health staff how to use universal and low-intensity care interventions to support patients and their families and complement management of treatment effects — holistic care matched to patient preferences.

The Guide provides direction on coaching the patient to understand their experience of suffering, learning skills to manage the challenges they may experience, and developing personal agency in how they and their family choose to face the present and future. It includes handouts and worksheets specifically constructed to convey support and practical self-help using cognitive behavioural principles. The Guide also provides information on the unique aspects of the emotional impact of cancer, guidance about the key elements of a supportive alliance with patients, the importance of distress screening and how best to use it, and key psychological issues facing patients.

The Guide is available in print and digital formats to provide accessibility and flexibility to the preferred needs of various healthcare settings. It enables health institutions to use an existing range of staff to create a customised care approach to delivering evidence-based psychological care within everyday oncology practice. Users can download handouts and worksheets locally and provide printed copies to patients or, if dealing remotely, email them. 

About the Authors

Jeff and Suzanne have dedicated their careers to caring for the patient and encouraging policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to do the same — to consider the patient and not just the disease. At the core of their approach is the philosophy of person and family-centred care, directly connected to best practice and an evidence base. As partners in life, and partners in the quest to improve outcomes for people with cancer, they stand as a force.

Professor Suzanne Chambers AO is a health psychologist and registered nurse who has been a practitioner-researcher in psycho-oncology for over 30 years. Her work has focussed on developing models to predict help-seeking and adjustment after cancer: designing remote access psychological interventions for people affected by cancer, integrating peer support into controlled design methodologies, and integrating distress screening into interventions to target high-distress cancer patient groups. She has published more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, four books, countless reports, and many book chapters. She was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2018 for distinguished service to medical research. She is an Honorary Fellow with St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Australian Catholic University, and an adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland.

Professor Jeff Dunn AO is a recognised World Cancer Leader and the current President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) which represents the world’s major cancer societies, ministries of health, and patient groups, with a membership base of over 1200 organisations in 172 countries. His work spans 30 years, during which time he has dedicated his career to developing strategies that underpin cancer survival and improve awareness of the disease. He has led research translation in psychosocial care in oncology through distress screening and stepped care models on a state, national and international level. Jeff has published more than 200 publications including peer-reviewed manuscripts, chapters, books and reports. He was appointed as an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2014 for distinguished service to medical administration. He is Professor of Social and Behavioural Science at the University of Southern Queensland and Chief of Mission and Head of Research at the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

Download a Comprehensive Information Booklet on the How and Why of the Guide

"This guide will enable healthcare providers to identify psychological distress and to deliver effective clinic-based psychological care that is systematic, routine and evidence-based. Cancer care providers and their patients will benefit enormously from this highly readable, rigorous and practical guide.” - Gary Rodin MD FRCPc, Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Global Institute of Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC), University of Toronto, Director, Cancer Experience Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada



"Professors Chambers and Dunn have delivered what we have so badly been wanting – an approach that humanises clinical excellence and codifies it for easy implementation. This manual feels like a warm embrace. I commend it to one and all.” - Anita Cahill BSC Hons, RNP, HDip SHWW, RGN, Msc Nursing Studies, PGcert Advanced Practice/Midwifery, Past President, Irish Association of Urology Nurses

 
"Psychological care, love, and support are like oil that flows between the medical cogs that grind ever onwards. Chambers and Dunn have captured the need for both; the need for relationship, connection, and pragmatic psychological support, hand in hand with outstanding medical care for every patient with cancer. You cannot care for the body, without caring for the soul." - Dr Briony Scott, educational leader and lung cancer patient advocate, Sydney, Australia

See also 
The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Men with Prostate Cancer