A model of cancer survivorship care within a community health setting: the Good Life Cancer Survivorship program

Russell, Lahiru; McIntosh, Rebecca; Martín, Carina Aguilar; Scott, Janine; Soo, Wee Kheng; Zappa, Bernadette; Haynes, Kerry; Livingston, Patricia M.; Ugalde, Anna

doi:10.1007/s11764-019-00821-6

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The allied health practitioners most utilised under this scheme were podiatrists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, and dietitians. Russell et al (2020) found similar results. Examples of the relevance and benefits of allied health services to cancer patients include physiotherapy for cancer-related fatigue (Pyszora et al 2017), podiatrists to prevent, diagnose and manage podiatric toxicity of cancer treatments (Lacouture et al 2018), exercise physiologists and physiotherapists to prescribe and oversee exercise and manual therapies to attenuate cancer treatment-related side-effects (Cormie et al 2020), and dietitians to help address weight and muscle loss commonly experienced by cancer patients (Sullivan et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Uptake of Team Care Arrangements for adults newly diagnosed with cancer

Perez‐Concha

Goldstein

Harris

et al. 2022

Aust. J. Prim. Health

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Background. Medicare-subsidised Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) support Australian general practitioners to implement shared care between collaborating health professionals for patients with chronic medical conditions and complex needs. We assessed the prevalence of TCAs, factors associated with TCA uptake and visits to TCA-subsidised allied health practitioners, for adults newly diagnosed with cancer in New South Wales, Australia. Methods. We carried out a retrospective individual patient data linkage study with 13 951 45 and Up Study participants diagnosed with incident cancer during 2006-16. We used a proportional hazards model to estimate the factors associated with receipt of a TCA after cancer diagnosis. Results. In total, 6630 patients had a TCA plan initiated (47.5%). A TCA was more likely for patients aged ≥65 years, those with higher service utilisation 4-15 months prior to cancer diagnosis, a higher number of comorbidities, lower self-rated overall health status, living in areas of greater socio-economic disadvantage, lower educational attainment and those with no private health insurance. A total of 4084 (61.6%) patients with a TCA had at least one TCA-subsidised allied health visit within 24 months of the TCA. Conclusions. TCAs appear to be well targeted at cancer patients with chronic health conditions and lower socioeconomic status. Nevertheless, not all patients with a TCA subsequently attended a TCA-subsidised allied healthcare professional. This suggests either a misunderstanding of the plan, the receipt of allied health via other public schemes, a low prioritisation of the plan compared to other health care, or suboptimal availability of these services.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Uptake of Team Care Arrangements for adults newly diagnosed with cancer

Perez‐Concha

Goldstein

Harris

et al. 2022

Aust. J. Prim. Health

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“…The Good Life Cancer Survivorship (GL-CS) program GL-CS is a community-based model of survivorship care delivered by allied healthcare services and offers a person-centred and coordinated model of care promoting lifestyle and behaviour change [7]. An initial assessment with a community-based Integrated Care Coordinator con rms the survivor's medical conditions and areas of concern, followed by discussions about survivorship care planning and service options to address care needs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our team conducted a pilot study to establish and evaluate a referral pathway to a community-based cancer survivorship program called the Good Life-Cancer Survivorship program [7]. The study highlighted the bene ts of integrated care coordination involving community-based nursing and allied health professionals, and demonstrated the value of a community health setting to support cancer survivors in managing their health and well-being [7]. These ndings informed this larger implementation project to expand the delivery of the survivorship program across four community health settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of a referral pathway for cancer survivors to access allied health services in the community

Russell

McIntosh²,

Martín³

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

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Background The growing demands for multidisciplinary cancer survivorship care require new approaches to address the needs of people living after a cancer diagnosis. Good Life–Cancer Survivorship is a self-management support survivorship program delivered by community allied health (AH) services for people diagnosed with cancer. A pilot study established the benefits of Good Life–Cancer Survivorship to help survivors manage their health and wellbeing in the community health setting. This study expanded the program to four community health services and evaluated the implementation outcomes of the survivorship program. Methods Eligible cancer survivors attending hospital oncology services were referred to the survivorship program. Data was collected between 19/02/2021-22/02/2022 and included allied health service utilisation, consumer surveys, and interviews to understand consumer experience with the survivorship program. Interviews and focus groups with hospital and community health professionals explored factors influencing the survivorship program uptake. Implementation outcomes included Adoption, Acceptability, Appropriateness, Feasibility, and Sustainability. Results Of 35 eligible survivors (mean age 65.5 years, SD=11.0; 56% women), 31 (89%) accepted the referral. Most survivors had two (n=14/31; 45%) or more (n=11/31; 35%) allied health needs. Of 162 AH appointments (median appointment per survivor=4; range=1-15; IQR:5), 142/162 (88%) were scheduled within the study period and 126/142 (89%) were attended. Consumers’ interviews (n=5) discussed the referral pathway; continuation of survivorship care in community health settings; opportunities for improvement of the survivorship program. Interviews with community health professionals (n=5) highlighted the impact of the survivorship program; cancer survivorship care in community health; sustainability of the survivorship program. Interviews (n=3) and focus groups (n=7) with hospital health professionals emphasised the importance of a trusted referral process; a holistic and complementary model of care; a person-driven process; the need for promoting the survivorship program. All evaluations favourably upheld the five implementation outcomes. Conclusions The Good Life–Cancer Survivorship program supported survivors in self-management strategies through accessible and tailored community allied health services. The survivorship program was well adopted and demonstrated acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility by all parties involved. Findings support the delivery of cancer survivorship care in community health settings with recommendations from clinicians to sustain the referral pathway.

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“…As of 2016, the United States had about 15 million cancer survivors, most of whom survived more than five years after treatment, and half were older than 70 years [ 3 ]. The preceding studies noted the importance of community-linked integrated care as a joint management measure for the long-term treatment of cancer patients who were also struggling with a high burden of comorbidities [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. In addition, studies on community-linked treatment models have shown that appropriate community-linked care and integrated medical services promote the health of cancer survivors [ 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Analysis of the Perception of Cancer Patients and Healthcare Providers (Oncology Physicians, Nurses, Social Workers) in Support of Integrated Community-Linked Cancer Plans

Kim

Choi

Yun

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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This study aimed to examine the awareness and status of cancer patients and healthcare providers (physicians, nurses and social workers) regarding community linkage, in order to establish a desirable care plan model in a future research project. The survey was conducted via two methods: face-to-face for cancer patients (n = 308) and oncology physicians (n = 210), and due to COVID-19 circumstances, online for nurses (n = 200) and social workers (n = 313). As a result, more than 95% of the healthcare providers responded that cancer patients required community-linked services and discharge plans, whereas 50.7% and 79.2% of cancer patients noted the importance of community-linked services and discharge plans, respectively. Social workers, among healthcare providers, showed the most positive experience about connecting patients to community services since 69.7% of them responded as “excellent”. However, as a group, cancer patients considered the necessity of community-linked service as less important, as only 50.7% responded as agreeing it was necessary. The barriers to community linkage were the lack of communication among the different professions of healthcare providers, and the ambiguity in their roles. The findings of this study will inform future community-linked health research, policies and systems for cancer patients. In particular, an in-depth interview with cancer patients will be required to explore their lack of acknowledgment about the necessity of community-linked services. Therefore, this study is expected to contribute to the improvement and supplementation of cancer policies.

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A model of cancer survivorship care within a community health setting: the Good Life Cancer Survivorship program

Cited by 16 publications

References 9 publications

Uptake of Team Care Arrangements for adults newly diagnosed with cancer

Uptake of Team Care Arrangements for adults newly diagnosed with cancer

Implementation of a referral pathway for cancer survivors to access allied health services in the community

A Comparative Analysis of the Perception of Cancer Patients and Healthcare Providers (Oncology Physicians, Nurses, Social Workers) in Support of Integrated Community-Linked Cancer Plans

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