WEDNESDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The psychosocial needs of cancer patients are important and should be an integral part of high-quality cancer care, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine.
The report, Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs, notes that while great strides have been made in fighting cancer, the anxiety, fear and depression associated with cancer often go untreated. The report also found that untapped psychosocial services are available in many communities, often at no cost to patients, but many patients are unaware of them or do not know how to access them. The report provides an extensive list of such services and recommends that the National Cancer Institute maintain an up-to-date online directory.
The report recommends that the standard of care for psychosocial health services should include facilitating communication between providers and patients, identifying each patient's needs, designing and implementing a plan, and following-up and adjusting plans.
"Psychosocial issues in cancer are palpable, important, and potentially crippling," the report concludes. "Today, it is not possible to deliver good-quality cancer care without addressing patients' psychosocial health needs."
The report was requested by the U.S. Congress and the National Institutes of Health.
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