BCAC Deputy Chair Chris Walsh and committee member Sue Ellis attended a day forum in Wellington in December organised by the Cancer Society and Central Cancer Network.
Titled ‘Survivorship – from discharge through follow up and beyond’ it attracted about 90 health professionals and survivors from around New Zealand.
Chris made the following observations:
The forum gave a number of presenters the opportunity to profile their own services and highlight research on survivorship.
Two of the ten speakers incorporated their own personal cancer experience into their presentations.
Supportive care, lifestyle, exercise, living well and emotional intervention programmes were all presented as models for survivors.
It is clear the concept of “survivorship” is relatively new in the New Zealand context and what it means to be a cancer survivor and the types of support needed (if any) remains unclear.
While no two people have the same experience of cancer we can learn from the journeys of others. At present there is no New Zealand research designed to answer the critical questions about survivorship.
While survivorship care plans are well established overseas, they are yet to be integrated into the cancer continuum of care here. Before support services for cancer survivors can be planned the needs of this population must be determined.
The first step is to find out what people want when leaving the health service after a cancer experience. Any survivorship plan should be negotiated with the consumer first and foremost, alongside the health professional (usually a nurse).
Within the tight fiscal constraints of health care is it unrealistic to expect that each person should have a survivorship care plan? Much of the cost of cancer care is accounted for in fighting the disease. Is it a priority to invest more to provide psychosocial
support for those who survive beyond five years? Such issues must be debated to plan an effective future health service. A proportion of patients would benefit from ongoing support but research is needed to identify those in need and clarify what form of support would be effective.
