Psychosocial support among adults living with metastatic breast cancer: Perspectives from providers across four New York‐Presbyterian hospitals

Abstract

Key Points We conducted semi‐structured interviews with providers at four New York‐Presbyterian (NYP) hospitals: Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), NYP‐Queens, NYP‐Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, and Columbia University Medical Center. Emergent themes identified factors that influenced healthcare delivery at the institutional, provider, and patient levels. Most frequently reported barriers included a lack of formal protocols for communicating and offering psychosocial resources to patients (institutional), lack of vital staff such as, social workers and patient navigators (institutional), time constraints (provider), and stigma regarding mental health care (patient). Most frequently cited facilitators to delivering psychosocial care included having a trained social worker on staff (institutional), awareness of psychosocial needs (provider), and engagement (patient). Our findings highlight opportunities to improve the provision of psychosocial care for adults with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) at multiple levels.