In 2017 Castlemaine Health established a Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship Program by re-orienting existing allied health and nursing resources into a cancer-specific stream within the Outpatients service.
During the first year 48% of clients in the service were over 70 years of age. Baseline FACT-G results demonstrated that these clients presented with lower T-scores for “Social/Family Wellbeing” (t= 41.7) and “Functional Wellbeing” (t=32.9) compared to their younger counterparts (t= 48 and t= 36.1 respectively).
In response to the proportion of older clients in the program and the complex nature of their needs, in 2018 we further developed our existing service to include pathways for providing targeted assessment and intervention for older people in our community and their carers.
The first pathway incorporates the specialised nursing skills of an Older Persons Nurse Practitioner (OPNP) as part of the multidisciplinary team. Clients ≥ 70 years are routinely screened using the Edmonton Frail Scale, and those identified as vulnerable or frail are offered the OPNP service in addition to their usual care.
Another pathway focuses on improving processes for recognising and supporting carers through integrating the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) and intervention guidelines into existing practice.
The final pathway explores the experience and needs of older cancer survivors in residential aged care facilities, and their families, through interviews. As part of the exploration into residents’ experience, 39 residential aged care staff were surveyed to determine their knowledge and confidence in providing cancer survivorship care. This survey showed that 80% had not received any cancer-specific education, and only 10% felt highly confident in accessing credible information in order to provide best practice interventions.
Findings from the project will be presented. This project is supported by a grant from a Victorian Cancer Survivorship Program: Phase II Grants Scheme - Capacity Building Grant 2018.