Understanding Cancer Survivors' Needs to Improve Quality of Life

Represent informational and support needs of cancer survivors to enhance quality of life and empower communication with providers. Leveraging expertise from national leaders in cancer survivorship, the National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center (NCSRC) explored key survivorship issues and identifi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) England), 2012-02, Vol.21, p.1
Main Authors: Cannady, RS, Willis, A, Wiatrek, D, Stein, K, Cowens-Alvarado, R, Pratt-Chapman, M, Patierno, S, Sharpe, K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cancer
Oncology
Quality of life
Survival analysis
Survivor
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Represent informational and support needs of cancer survivors to enhance quality of life and empower communication with providers. Leveraging expertise from national leaders in cancer survivorship, the National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center (NCSRC) explored key survivorship issues and identified gaps/barriers, recommendations and indicators of success at the individual/survivor level. Large gaps in knowledge were identified for effective survivorship strategies directed towards medically underserved populations and the availability of culturally appropriate survivorship resources. To better understand these needs, a survey was distributed in fall 2011 to community cancer centers to capture information on existing survivorship programs and populations served. To begin addressing these gaps, NCSRC developed several tools for survivors: an information tip sheet that raises awareness of survivorship and recommends resources, a ''prescription pad'' for providers to direct survivors to community and culturally appropriate resources, and an inventory that captures existing survivorship resources. Chronic disease self-management interventions will be explored to assess their value in addressing disparities by providing knowledge and skills to survivors to empower them to manage post-treatment care. At the individual survivor level, NCSRC is addressing survivorship disparities by better understanding what successful strategies and resources exist, identifying gaps and barriers, developing culturally-tailored resources and piloting promising interventions. The NCSRC will also work to improve dissemination pathways to increase utilization and awareness of existing resources in underserved populations.
ISSN:1057-9249
1099-1611