Many oncologists are fortunate enough to practice in fine, multidisciplinary cancer centers, where social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists stand by to assist patients and family members who need professional guidance to help them through despair, family strife, or anxiety interfering with their treatment.
Other oncologists, however, must roll their eyes when practice guidelines, studies, and yes, admittedly, even this blog, recommend referring at-risk patients for specialized psychosocial care. They practice miles from the nearest psychologist with an expertise in psycho-oncology – in counties with no local chapters of the American Cancer Society, Wellness Community cancer programs, or Gilda’s Clubs.
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Even for patients miles away from a psycho-oncology expert, the APOS Helpline will help make a connection
If you’re such an oncologist, you must be asking the Ghostbusters question: Who’m I gonna call?
Okay, get out a pen. Dial toll-free: 1-866-APOS-4-HELP (1-866-276-7443).
That’s the number for the Helpline of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS), a multidisciplinary organization founded in 1986 by Dr. Jimmie Holland, the indefatigable octogenarian chair of psychiatric oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center in New York City.
Since 2003, the APOS Helpline has received a total of almost 3,000 calls originating in almost every state.
A recent tally showed that calls came from patients (53.7%), friends and family members (35.3%), healthcare professionals (6.8%), and national and local advocacy organizations serving patients with psychosocial needs beyond their scope (3.2%).
Most often, patients, families, and oncology professionals are directed to counseling resources in their own communities.
When patients cannot pay, or the search for community resources reaches a “dead end,” in the words of Dr. Elizabeth B. Harvey, a New York City psychologist, “We step in and provide temporary support for the patient.”*
In more than 100 calls she has handled as a Helpline counselor, Dr. Harvey has volunteered her time to people such as Bob, a 65-year-old man who was living in seclusion after the death of his wife two years ago. Even if there had been a support group where Bob lived, he was emotionally incapable of making his way to their meetings until phone counseling helped him to “slowly re-enter the world,” she said.
Similarly, when Lucy’s oncologist recommended counseling, the unemployed young mother with metastatic breast cancer and three children to care for had “neither the time nor the money” to investigate resources, wrote Dr. Harvey in a series of vignettes presented to APOS in support of expanding and promoting the Helpline.
People struggling with unsupportive families, housebound due to symptoms, or rurally isolated all have reached out and received help, sometimes by talking to them by phone on a weekly or periodic basis.*
“We have heard some heartbreaking stories,” said Dr. Holland at the annual APOS meeting in Miami.
The APOS members included in the Helpline referral directory reflect the organization’s diversity, coming from the fields of oncology, psychiatry, psychology, social work, nursing, counseling, therapy, and patient advocacy.
Calls are routed through the APOS headquarters in Charlottesville, VA., to Dr. Holland’s office, which contacts trained therapists who are part of the volunteer network.
At the meeting, Helpline coordinators expressed the hope that more professionals, including oncologists, might be made aware of the resource, and that more APOS members might be recruited to serve as counselors.
If you have need to call, please provide your name, phone number, the patient’s city/town and state of residence, and zip code of the location where you need a referral.
Inquiries are generally returned within 24-48 hours.
* CORRECTIONS: Information in these two paragraphs was updated on May 16, 2012.