Assessing the Practical and Psychosocial Needs of Rural Women with Early Breast Cancer in Australia

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to assess the practical and psychosocial needs of rural women with early breast cancer in Australia and recommend strategies to ensure equity in availability and access to cancer treatment for all women. A random sample of 204 rural women diagnosed with early breast cancer was recruited to participate in a telephone survey via state and territory cancer registries. Although the majority of women were satisfied with their provision of information overall, less than a third of participants were provided with specific information on assistance for rural women. Findings also revealed that only 47% of the women who had to travel for treatment received financial assistance, and 13% of these women had difficulty organizing or claiming financial assistance. Furthermore, only 10% of women found social workers to be a source of support.

Distress screening in a multidisciplinary lung cancer clinic: Prevalence and predictors of clinically significant distress

“…Certain characteristics of our sample may have further contributed to the relatively low percentage of individuals who desired help for their symptoms, including significant percentages of older individuals and individuals from rural areas. While age was the only significant factor related to wanting help (with younger patients reporting more interest in wanting help), other factors associated with rurality may be related to not wanting help for distress, including transportation concerns or misunderstanding of what support services may entail [45][46]. Future efforts should be targeted toward clarifying additional barriers to seeking support as well as making services for treating distress as palatable as possible.…”

Psychosocial well-being and supportive care needs of cancer patients living in urban and rural/regional areas: a systematic review

“…There were 14 quantitative studies without a control group, three on emotional aspects, three on travel issues and eight on needs and quality of life, all in the active phase of treatment [9,11,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Only one study [35] was longitudinal.…”

“…Many families reported travel was a challenge, identifying the following as needing improvement: access to information and support prior to leaving home, and for someone to help them decipher the information, access to information about supportive care services while away from home, and sensitivity to personal needs in making arrangements for travel [11,29,30]. One Canadian study [30] compared patients who unexpectedly had to travel when it became clear that their local centre could not provide treatment in a timely manner, with patients who expected to travel because of their distance from a city, and patients who lived in an urban environment and did not have to travel.…”

“…Psychosocial morbidity and unmet needs may also be greater in rural/regional residing cancer patients, in part due to isolation from information and support services, extra demands/ expectations placed upon them and the larger number of roles that they might play [7][8][9][10][11]. Such patients may also be reluctant to accept services even when offered, due to a stoic and 'matter of fact' approach to life, concerns about privacy in a small community, and practical considerations such as availability of transport, financial issues and farm, small business and family needs [8][9][10][11].…”

“…Such patients may also be reluctant to accept services even when offered, due to a stoic and 'matter of fact' approach to life, concerns about privacy in a small community, and practical considerations such as availability of transport, financial issues and farm, small business and family needs [8][9][10][11].…”