Making Cancer Rehabilitation Services Work for Cancer Patients: Recommendations for Research and Practice to Improve Employment Outcomes

Abstract

Cancer and its treatment can result in impairments that limit physical, psychosocial, and cognitive functioning, interfering with patients’ ability to perform work-related functions. Given these work limitations can carry significant personal and societal costs, there is a timely need to identify and refer patients to cancer rehabilitation services to manage adverse consequences of treatment and preserve employment. Coordinated efforts in three key areas will better connect patients to rehabilitation interventions that will help optimize employment. These include planning for the impact of cancer on the ability to work, implementing routine screening for impairments and facilitating referrals to cancer rehabilitation specialists, and focusing rehabilitation interventions on preserving employment. Coordinated strategies are presented to achieve these three goals including practice change to implement screening for impairments; working with oncology providers and patients to better understand the benefits of cancer rehabilitation to facilitate referrals and uptake; training more cancer rehabilitation providers to handle the increased need; better coordinating care across providers and with employers; and filling research gaps needed to proactively anticipate how cancer treatment would affect work for a given patient and deploy personalized interventions to preserve the ability to work.

Equitably improving outcomes for cancer survivors and supporting caregivers: A blueprint for care delivery, research, education, and policy

“…12 Socioeconomically disadvantaged survivors are particularly vulnerable to poor quality of life, because poor access to health care hinders access to symptom management and receipt of effective treatment. 13,14 When left unaddressed, these problems lead to reduced work productivity, 15,16 quality of life, 12,17 and overall survival. 18 Survivors who are coping with advanced cancer [19][20][21][22] report ongoing symptom burden and poor physical functioning that affects quality of life.…”

“…Cancer rehabilitation, palliative care, and psychosocial care interventions help manage symptoms and improve functioning and quality of life. [102][103][104][105][106][107] Cancer rehabilitation interventions can help survivors maintain employment, 16 contributing to better financial outcomes. Palliative care also may save costs, 108 and research suggests that both palliative care 109 and psychosocial care 110 may improve survival.…”

Colorectal cancer survivors' challenges to returning to work: A qualitative study

“…Specifically, we elicited the perspectives of survivors and employers to identify areas of shared concern and areas for improvement that can serve both groups' needs. Eliciting the perspective of CRC survivors alongside the perspective of employers provides key insights into those factors that are deemed important to RTW from both perspectives that may be important for designing effective policies and rehabilitation programmes that can help mitigate the impact of cancer on employment (Alfano et al, 2017;De Moor et al, 2018). and Washington (KPWA) (Feigelson et al, 2017).…”

Improving body function and minimizing activity limitations in pediatric leukemia survivors: The lasting impact of the Stoplight Program

“…Rehabilitation for people with cancer diagnoses focuses on providing care throughout the trajectory of treatment and survivorship to maximize function and minimize disability . The prospective surveillance model (PSM) is a newer approach to rehabilitation for people with cancer.…”

“…28,29 Rehabilitation for people with cancer diagnoses focuses on providing care throughout the trajectory of treatment and survivorship to maximize function and minimize disability. 30 The prospective surveillance model (PSM) is a newer approach to rehabilitation for people with cancer. The components of a PSM include the following: surveillance for common physical impairments and functional limitations, education to prevent adverse events, early detection of physical impairments, rehabilitation when impairments are identified, and promotion of physical activity throughout treatment and into survivorship.…”