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 suffer clinically significant distress. Families and caregivers of cancer patients also frequently experience emotional strain, grappling with guilt, helplessness, and an overwhelming caregiving burden. Addressing these psychological concerns is crucial to ensuring best-practice holistic care and improving the overall quality of life for both patients and their families.

Despite advances in psycho-oncology practice, gaps remain in the accessibility and delivery of psychological support for cancer patients through:

• Limited availability of trained psychological care professionals due to budget constraints.
• Limited service access, especially in rural or resource-restricted settings.
• Lack of seamless integration of psychological care into broader oncology treatment plans, leaving emotional needs unaddressed.
• Cultural and societal stigma around mental health makes patients hesitant to seek help.

The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer addresses these gaps through an innovative universal and low-intensity psychological care intervention designed and targeted toward existing staff in nursing, psychological care, and medical treatment. It supports health professionals with practical guidance and resources to increase their confidence in recognising and responding to their patient's mental health concerns. All resources have been specifically constructed for ease of readability and convey support and practical self-help using cognitive behavioural principles.

The Guide provides direction on coaching patients and clients to understand their experience of suffering, learning skills to manage the challenges they experience, and developing personal agency in how they and their family choose to face the present and future. It 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.

A comprehensive set of digital resources accompanies the printed guide, allowing health professionals to create a customised care approach for patients face-to-face or remotely. Digital resources include:

• 11 Patient Handouts
• 9 Patient Worksheets to be filled in either by hand or digital device
• PHQ-9 questionnaire
• GAD-7 questionnaire
• 12-page Wellbeing Plan with Distress Thermometer
• A digital resources usage licence.

Please Note

Purchase of this print edition of The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer includes a usage licence for all digital resources which restricts their use to the individual purchaser and their patients and clients only. A customisable, Enterprise Edition of the Guide designed for whole-of-workplace use by hospitals, treatment centres, or cancer support organisations is available. Please contact the publisher.

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