Background
Cancer patients who have completed treatment often face different challenges in adjusting their life. Considering the increasing number of cancer survivors, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in Hong Kong (Maggie’s HK) would develop multi-disciplinary, holistic support service for these patients. To help designing these survivorship programmes, cancer survivors had been invited to identify their needs and expectations for the preliminary service development.
Method
A qualitative study design was adopted. Five semi-structured focus group interviews regarding the survivorship issues, each with 6-8 cancer survivors recruited from Maggie’s HK or website, were held between March and April 2018. Each interview lasted about 2 hours and were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Different themes were generated through repeated readings and content analysis with structured comparison.
Results
Different needs under four main themes regarding survivorship were emerged from the focus groups. 1. Physical needs: Participants reported the needs of accurate information about cancer and maintaining physical health, and suggested to have nurse consultation and practical programmes including nutrition, Chinese medicine and exercise. 2. Psychological needs: Participants reported concerns about fear of recurrence, self-image, marital and family relationships. They wanted to learn about better emotional regulation and have psychological support programmes. 3. Practical needs: Participants mentioned financial and work stress after completing treatment and the needs of seeking work-life balance and subsidies for various medical/healthcare expenses. 4. Social needs: Needs of peer support among cancer survivors, concerns about “normal” social life and communication with doctors were found from participants.
Conclusion
As there is not many, if not none, significant studies about cancer survivorship in Hong Kong, this study could reveal in details the cancer survivors’ local needs and the importance of multi-disciplinary and holistic care for the survivorship service development.