Innovative cancer service colleague wins national award
This was for presenting the service innovations to improve patients' psychological outcomes, from our work within The East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health (EMCA CPH), which is run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare.
James' presentation looked at a range of innovations the team have implemented to improve outcomes for patients.
One of these was the psychological skills training for cancer care colleagues, funded by the NIHR ARC East Midlands. This ensures cancer care colleagues have the skills they need to support their patients with their psychological wellbeing at an earlier stage and prevent symptoms from worsening.
Many people living with or beyond cancer experience impacts on psychosocial health, quality of life, functioning and broader health outcomes. Timely, accessible, and personalised psychosocial support can have a significant positive impact on a broad range of health and social aspects of life, as a way of addressing this key, long term need for people affected by cancer.
The team have also worked to maximise patient choice and accommodate preferences, such as the gender of their clinician, day and time of appointments and frequency of sessions.
The service also offers a range of therapeutic approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Family and Systemic Therapy and, Motivational Interviewing, to ensure patients can access the treatments that best suits their needs.
Dr Rathbone said: "As a service we are committed to providing patients with the best possible care and support, and I was really proud to be able to present our fantastic innovations at this national conference and to win the award."
All patients are also invited to participate in a randomised controlled clinical trial running in the service. The trial is exploring the benefits of a single session intervention to prepare patients for psychological therapy which is delivered within two weeksof referral for this support. This session offers key information on how patients can gain the most benefit from psychological therapy and aims to support patients to start making beneficial changes while waiting for their initial appointment.
They also review if the therapy is working for patients through discussions on their progress, which is part of routine clinical support. This means they can identify where there has been no-change or worsening of symptoms sooner. This allows changes to the therapeutic process to be made to ensure patients get the psychological support that works for them.
These are just a few of the innovations that James and the team provide to ensure patients are getting the best possible care.
Rate this page or report a problem
