Reasons Why Australians Suffering From Cancer Find It Hard To Cope With Psychological Problems That Are Often Unaddressed

Skin cancer is one of the leading diseases in Australia and the number of cancer-affected patients is expected to touch almost 1.9 million in 2040. However, with advanced skin cancer detection and treatment methods and awareness of risk factors of skin cancer, many of these patients will continue to lead a normal life post-diagnosis. 

However, there’s still a huge number of those who continue to experience psychological, financial, and social issues that impact their quality of life. Cancer treatment, therefore, cannot afford to focus only on the physical health of the patient; it needs to look beyond this and take care of his emotional well-being too. That’s because people impacted by cancer tend to experience an overwhelming level of anxiety, sadness, and depression without guidance and support. They have unmet psychological needs that can hamper their treatment. 

Why does this happen?

Risk factors of skin cancer patients suffer from long-term, delayed effects of treatment; they often experience activity limitations, physical impairments, and changes in relationships with family and friends, which impact their careers or education. This gives birth to an overall feeling of dejection, fatigue, and frustration.

Health issues developing as a result of skin cancer treatment can impose a burden on the patient and his caregivers. Caregivers and healthcare systems today are struggling to cater to the emotional needs of cancer patients. This makes it all the more important for governments to focus on how to provide care to cancer survivors. 

Without a concerted effort by the government, it isn’t possible to provide individualized care to patients. Person-centered care is the need of the hour; this requires understanding and evaluating individual patient needs and addressing these.

It is believed that this shift towards person-centered care can happen only when the patient’s unmet psychological needs are addressed. There is enough evidence to show that when you can identify and attend to a cancer survivor’s needs, you can improve his health outcome significantly. Previously, reviews did not look at the unmet needs of survivors and concentrated only on the needs of those who had been just diagnosed or undergoing treatment. Their needs are not the same as the needs of those who have already undergone treatment and trying to resume their normal life.

To improve the quality of life for Australia’s cancer survivors, it’s important to address this gap between the needs of those undergoing treatment and those who are cancer survivors. It’s important to realize that the needs usually continue well after treatment.

You will find people who have undergone skin cancer treatment, for instance, finding it hard to deal with the uncertainty and changes which the disease brings. Those staying in rural areas often struggle to get support services when needed. Staying away from big cities makes it very hard for these patients to get counseling.

Just like we need clinics for tests for early skin cancer detection, we need support from the government on how to handle life after cancer. According to research by The Daffodil Center, almost 1.52 million in New South Wales will have cancer in the next 25 years. The Cancer Council has to provide counseling services to cater to this growing number of cancer patients. For this, the NSW needs to proactively implement a plan which will ensure that cancer-affected individuals get all the support they need when they need it.