Poster Presentation Cancer Survivorship Conference 2023

The ‘Good Life – Cancer Survivorship’ program – implementation of a model of allied health survivorship cancer care within a community health setting (#142)

Rebecca McIntosh 1 , Carina Martin 1 , Wee-Kheng Soo 1 2 3 , Lahiru Russell 4 5 , Anna Ugalde 6
  1. healthAbility, Box Hill, VIC, Australia
  2. Eastern Health, Box Hill, VIC, Australia
  3. Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Box Hill, VIC, Australia
  4. Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia
  5. Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research, Eastern Health Partnership, Box Hill, VIC, Australia
  6. Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

Aims:

Cancer survival is improving rapidly with advances in treatment and early detection. Effective care coordination between oncology and community health settings could support survivors’ access to allied health services and empower survivors to self-manage their health and wellbeing.  This study aimed to implement and evaluate a referral pathway to community-based model of survivorship care, the Good Life Cancer Survivorship program.

Methods:  

Survivors referred to the program were undergoing or had completed cancer treatment, and were unable to participate in intensive ambulatory oncology rehabilitation. Acceptability, adoption, feasibility and fidelity of the program were evaluated, with data collected on; health service utilisation across four community health services delivering the program via a central coordination point, perspectives of consumers and health professionals with interviews and a focus group and a consumer survey.  The focus group and interviews were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed; descriptive statistics were used for the health service utilisation and consumer survey.

Results:

Thirty-nine referrals came from the oncology service to the community survivorship program over 10 months.  A total of 162 allied health appointments were scheduled with a median of four appointments per cancer survivor and high attendance rates (89%).  The most accessed services were integrated care coordination (48%) followed by physiotherapy (19%) and dietetics (11%).  The majority of cancer survivors had need for two or more allied health referrals.  The key themes that emerged from the focus group and interviews included; the impact of the referral pathway, continuation of survivorship care within community health and opportunities for sustainability.

Conclusions:

A community-based allied health program was adopted, feasible and acceptable to support cancer survivors in managing their health. Community-based models of survivorship care have the potential to support people with cancer and reduce the burden on oncology health services.

Acknowledgements:

This project was supported by the Victorian Government.