Opportunities for Improving Psychosocial Care for Cancer Survivors

The quality of psychosocial care provided to patients with cancer has received increased attention since the 2008 publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report entitled “Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Addressing Psychosocial Health Needs.”1 The report concluded that, despite evidence for the effectiveness of psychosocial care, many patients who could benefit from these services do not receive them. Among the report’s main recommendations was that processes should be in place to identify patients ’ psychosocial needs and then link patients with appropriate services to address those needs. Since the report’s publication, there have been numerous ef-forts to evaluate the extent to which psychosocial care is being pro-vided consistent with the IOM recommendations. These efforts include surveys of oncologists,2 oncology nurses,3 and psychosocial care providers4 as well as reviews of medical records of patients seen in selected medical practices.5 Although useful, these reports provide a