By Laura Landro in the Wall Street Journal (registration required):

As the ranks of cancer survivors grow to more than 10 million in the U.S., so does concern that medical providers aren’t doing enough to link patients and families to resources they need to face the physical and psychological effects of cancer — from fatigue and memory loss to depression, anxiety, sexual dysfunction and pain.

Now, leading cancer-advocacy groups, major cancer centers, insurance companies and oncology medical societies are stepping up efforts to help, with new programs to provide so-called psychosocial services that aid patients, families and health-care providers in managing the myriad psychological and social aspects of cancer.

The new push follows a report from the Institute of Medicine that found health-care providers often fail to provide needed support to patients.

“Cancer Care for the Whole Patient,” a report from IOM that provides information about free patient support programs around the country, is available free at www.IOM.edu.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under advocacy, chronic illness, patients. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post