‘Cancer patients with emotional difficulties are not getting the care they need’

Studies have shown that high levels of distress at the time of cancer diagnosis are associated with a higher risk of recurrence and death.

According to an expert, however, only 10 percent of cancer patients are assessed and diagnosed for psychiatric problems despite the emotional distress they experience. Many patients do not seek care after a cancer diagnosis, believing they should be able to cope and endure on their own.

That points to the need to expand the “Peer Support Program” to increase emotional support for cancer patients, the expert noted.

Professor Yu Eun-seung of the Department of Counseling Psychology at Cyber University of Korea made this argument at an international conference organized by the Korea Kidney Cancer Association and the International Kidney Cancer Coalition, held at the Harbor Park Hotel in Incheon from Sunday to Tuesday.

"It is known from various statistics that more than 60 percent of cancer patients suffer from distress," Professor Yu said. "However, when we checked the rate of psychiatric disorders or psychiatric diagnoses after a new cancer diagnosis, we found that only 10.4 percent of patients were re-diagnosed with psychiatric disorders."

Even with a high rate of 60 percent, only 10 percent of patients are receiving care, which means there is a gap, Yu noted, adding this gap is due to a lack of awareness of stress, which is often attributed to the fact that cancer patients think it is natural to be emotionally distressed because they are cancer patients.

Distress is the physical, mental, social, and spiritual distress that patients and their families experience as a result of cancer and its treatment.

"It's something that people think they should be able to handle and endure on their own, or they don't recognize when they are depressed or anxious," she said. “They don't recognize that the symptoms they’re experiencing are coming from depression.”

There is also a fear of the "double stigma of being a cancer patient and having to see a psychiatrist," Yu noted, pointing to the need to reduce the burden of taking medication and the stigma and burden of psychiatric medication.

Professor Yu also pointed out poor access to hospitals to treat emotional issues.

"Because cancer treatment is concentrated in the Big Five hospitals in Seoul rather than where patients live, they have to go back to their community for emotional care after cancer treatment, so it's not easy to go back to the same hospital for emotional care if you're feeling emotionally distressed," Yu said. “It's the hard part in terms of access.”

In particular, oncologists may not be able to catch the moment when emotional support is needed and may not be able to help, she said.

"There is no system in place to quickly detect such symptoms in patients and lead to psychiatric consultation, and there are not many stress management programs in Korea that can be provided to patients when they are referred to psychiatry or specialized areas. So, even if patients complain of emotional difficulties, they are not properly managed."

To solve this problem, Professor Yu introduced the Peer Support Program, developed and operated for the past 22 years.

The Peer Support Program is an upgrade of the Happy Care Service, an emotional support program for cancer patients developed with the support of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2020, where cancer patients share their experiences with other cancer patients to receive emotional support and help them cope and adapt to cancer.

Through the eight sessions of the emotional support program, patients will be able to see their peer supporters and feel comforted by their presence rather than having the supporters solve their problems for them.

"The patients who participated in the program were very satisfied, and the peer supporters who provided the program also experienced increased self-confidence and self-efficacy," Yu said, adding that efforts are needed to make peer support programs more socially acceptable.

Yu continued, "We need to create a professionally managed system to make it safer for these patients to engage in peer support activities, and then it can be embedded throughout the community."