Dr. Matt Williams: The role of psychological support, particularly in Oncology, is huge
and I think as soon as you put it on a par with the physical aspects of medicine in a
sense it becomes almost trivial. We wouldn't give people chemotherapy without anti-sickness
drugs. Why would we treat someone with a disease that clearly has a significant psychological
impact without offering psychological support?
Simon Szcsepaniak: When I was diagnosed, it happened very quickly. There's very little
time to think about emotional stuff, but it does build up. I didn't want to explain it
to everyone, it was just easier to pretend that everything was fine. And before I knew
it years and years had passed and my coping mechanism, which were at the time, I thought,
were fantastic were not really doing anything, I wasn't moving forward and that's when the
depression set it. Cancer is a life changing thing. The diagnosis can be very brutal, and the
treatment can be very difficult. You have to put pieces of your life back together.
Vivien Stuart-Mossop: The most difficult thing to deal with was the feeling that my whole
life was now totally out of my hands, I had no control or influence over anything. The
cancer diagnosis plus the really bad effects of treatment makes it virtually impossible
to carry on as normal.
Gill Thomas: When people come into the centre, very often people have come for results, they've
had scans and they're very anxious. We'll sit with them and have a cup of tea and a
chat. We can sign post people to other services or refer onto the psychological team.
We have courses to help people that are living with cancer. We run the hope course for people
that are dealing with emotional side effects of cancer.
Dr. Matt Williams: Working out whether someone needs psychological support can be quite variable,
sometimes it's quite obvious. You can sometimes spot it as soon as you walk in. I do also
explicitly ask about 'How's your mood? How much are you doing? How are your children?'
So, I deliberately ask about those wider psychological issues in the hope that that then gives patients
permission to talk about them.
Vivien Stuart-Mossop: I found it quite hard to communicate the way I was feeling with
family. The CNS nurse goes through a whole holistic assessment really, she doesn't just
ask how you're feeling, whether you've got tingling feet or not from the chemo, she goes through
absolutely every aspect of your being: mental, emotional, physical.
Teresa Gascoyne (Nurse): You're not just look at someone's physical needs, it's not just
having the knowledge of the cancer treatments that's part of it. I see very much as my role
as a CNS is to guide them through their treatments, but to also acknowledging that certain points
of their treatment may be more stressful, and also considering there are emotional and
social aspects of the person, not just a person with cancer.
Vivien Stuart-Mossop: My CNS obviously picked it up, that I was certainly not myself at
all and she referred me to the psycho-oncology service which turned out to be a huge blessing.
Dr. Troy Chase: Not everyone will need to see a clinical psychologist. We know that
for a number of people their emotional difficulties are such that they will be able to manage
them effectively using their own resources. But for some people, their difficulties are
so significant and are impacting so much on their day-to-day functioning that they would
benefit from seeing a clinical psychologist.
Dr. Rohini Sharma: For us it's been critical having psychologists in the team, and I think
it's important for the patients to know that we all work as part of a team and we're all
there to support them and help them through their treatment journey.
Vivien Stuart-Mossop: When the CNS nurse first suggested seeing someone in the psycho-oncology
team, I was a little bit sceptical because that's not something I've ever gone for
my life. But I was proven to be wrong in my scepticism. I had a very positive experience
and completely changed my view of that specialism.
Simon Szcsepaniak: The advice I would give if you find your life going awry, going sideways,
is ask for help. There are people there, professionals who can help you and put you
back on track.
Dr. Rohini Sharma: There's been a lot of research that shows that's if patients have a - if
they're very well psychologically supported and if they feel like they're going through
the treatment journey, very supported either from their CNS, from their doctor, or from
phycologists, they actually have a much better outcome than if they're not supported.
Simon Szcsepaniak: Just speaking about it, the relief of it was the most amazing thing.
We did exercises and worked through my issues, one by one and I no longer feel overwhelmed.
Things can be broken down and worked on little by little and slowly I think, 'you know, things
are getting better'.
Vivien Stuart-Mossop: Tell people how you're
feeling, both physically, mentally and emotionally. There is a huge team of qualified people that
not only can, but want to help you. So send up that flare.