Professional & Student Info

CAPO sponsored Initiatives

The Emotional Facts of Life with Cancer

Thank you for your interest in our Booklet, The Emotional Facts of Life with Cancer. The most recent printing of this booklet has been made possible by a generous donation from Enbridge. This practical guide has received countless accolades from patients, family members and the health care community at large.

The Emotional Facts of Life with Cancer: A Guide to Counselling and Support for Patients, Families and Friend

(download PDF English | français)

These booklets are available for distribution – but a small administrative handling fee is applied to all orders to ensure we can afford to continue to provide these booklets. The administrative handling fees are as follows:

• Orders of 10 or less will be mailed at no cost.
  
• Orders of 11 – 25 , a $20.00 administrative handling fee will apply, plus shipping
  
• Orders of 26 – 75 , a $30.00 administrative handling fee will apply, plus shipping
  
• Orders of 76 – 125 , a $50.00 administrative handling fee will apply, plus shipping
  
• Orders of 126 – 175, a $70.00 administrative handling fee will apply, plus shipping
  
• Box (250) , a $100.00/box administrative handling fee will apply, plus shipping
  

Shipping is done by either Canada post or Fed Ex ground.

For further information and to order booklets please e-mail [email protected]. Please include your complete mailing address, contact number and the email address CAPO can send an invoice to.

CAPO’s Position Statement – Role of Psychosocial Oncology in Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)

Under the direction of the CAPO Clinical Advisory Committee a working group of CAPO members has developed a position paper on MAID. This position statement is intended to clarify the role of psychosocial oncology services and psychosocial oncology clinicians in responding to patient inquiries about MAID. This paper can be accessed at:

CAPO MAID Position Statement PDF

We thank Drs Doris Howell, Keith Wilson, Madeline Li, Harvey Chochinov, Eric Wasylenko, Jennifer Bell, Jacynthe Rivest and Chad Hammond for their work on this position statement.

CAPO is looking for in-kind support to translate this position statement into French. If members are aware of local resources available for in-kind translation services, please contact [email protected]

Clinical Practice Guidelines

The evidence-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) movement within oncology, as in other health fields, represents a trend in identifying best practices and standardizing treatments. Within psychosocial oncology, evidence-based CPGs, along with Standards of Care, can help increase awareness of the important and often unmet psychosocial needs of cancer patients. These guides to practice can be used by practitioners and organizations to identify and address the challenges and barriers in delivering high quality, accessible psychosocial care. CAPO, in collaboration with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) and other key partners, is leading initiatives to develop and disseminate national psychosocial oncology clinical practice guidelines.

• Pan Canadian Guideline: Assessment of Psychosocial Health Needs of the Adult Cancer Patient
  
• Pan Canadian Guidance on Organization and Structure of Survivorship Services and Psychosocial-Supportive Care Best Practices for Adult Cancer Survivors
  
• A Pan-Canadian Practice Guideline: Screening, Assessment and Management of Psychosocial Distress, Major Depression and Anxiety in Adults with Cancer (Version 2, 2015)
  
• Algorithms for Cancer-related Distress, Depression and Global Anxiety
  
• A Pan Canadian Practice Guideline for Screening, Assessment, and Management of Cancer-Related Fatigue in Adults
  
• Algorithms for Cancer related Fatigue
  
• A Pan-Canadian Practice Guideline: Prevention, Screening, Assessment and Treatment of Sleep Disturbances in Adults with Cancer
  

Other useful standards, guidelines, and tools:

• Standards of Psychosocial Health Services for Persons with Cancer and their Families
  
• Accreditation Canada
  
• Clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of adults with cancer (National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia)
  
• Person-Centred Toolkit (Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Canada)
  

I am not Cancer Poster Campaign

This poster campaign was developed in 2003 to help humanize the cancer experience. Recognizing that the cancer experience can be all encompassing, it reminded all of us that there is a human side a cancer and help is available to address the emotional side of cancer.

This campaign was made possible by a generous donation from TransCanada

I am not Cancer Poster Campaign (download PDF English | français)

The National Standards for Psychosocial Oncology

The National Standards for Psychosocial Oncology have been developed to assist cancer facilities, program leaders and practitioners in the delivery of psychosocial care in Canada by providing a basic framework for the practice of psychosocial oncology. This initiative came about from a recognition that psychosocial oncology standards are required to ensure that the basic principles and quality of care in the domain of psychosocial oncology are consistently applied and available to people living with cancer across Canada.

Psychosocial oncology services exist in a variety of settings, including hospitals, comprehensive cancer centres, satellite clinics and multipurpose public health clinics in urban and rural communities throughout Canada. The psychosocial oncology standards apply to this range of oncology health care services for patients, their families and care-givers. The Psychosocial Oncology standards are designed to guide administrators and professionals in the development of psychosocial oncology services.

These Standards were reviewed and updated in 2010.

National Psychosocial Oncology Standards

The Interprofessional Psychosocial Oncology Distance Education (IPODE)

Project à Distance en Oncologie Psychosociale

Through a generous donation from Health Canada, in 2007 & 2008 CAPO led the development of the first distance education interprofessional psychosocial oncology course in Canada for health care professionals. CAPO collaborated with 8 universities and 6 cancer agencies across 8 provinces to create this program. The course entitled “Interprofessional Psychosocial Oncology: Introduction to Theory and Practice is being offered to students across Canada.

Experts in psychosocial oncology clinical practice, research and education from across the country have contributed to the development of a rich array of learning resources for the students, including narratives, dramas, and learning modules.

http://www.ipode.ca

Online Community of Practice

In 2008 The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer generously provided funding to develop a new website which will provide an exchange between health care professionals, community based organizations and the public on psychosocial oncology. This project will create a community of practice (CoP) website to connect providers of supportive psychosocial cancer care with important stakeholders. This website, scheduled to be launched in 2009 will create an online “meeting space” linking stakeholders so that they are more easily able to create, access, share and use evidence-based cancer health-related information

The website will form part of a Canada wide, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer web portal.

Professional Resources

Psychosocial Oncology Articles:

• The Measure of Distress, A practical thermometer for outpatient screening
  
• Screening for Psychologic Distress in Ambulatory Cancer Patients
  
• A Multicenter Evaluation of the Distress Thermometer
  
• High Levels of untreated distress and fatigue in cancer patients
  

Other reports/publications

Grant Funding

There are a number of national, provincial agencies and local agencies that fund cancer research. In addition, there are agencies that fund cancer “site” specific research, such as the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance. It is also important to seek out funding opportunities through specific “Requests for Proposals” that aim to solicit grants in particular areas, for example, a recent request for proposals by CIHR focused on quality of life research in palliative care. Listed below are various websites outlining operating, pilot or special grant competitions.

Personnel Awards

There are a number of national and provincial agencies that offer peer-reviewed personnel awards in the form of career scientist awards, investigator awards, studentships and fellowships. Some of these award competitions are cancer-specific, such as the yearly competition help by the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Others are open to all areas of research. In addition there are a number of awards open to specific disciplines, such as fellowships offered through nursing associations, such as the Canadian Nurses Association. Websites relevant to CAPO members are listed below.

• Studentships and Fellowships
  
• Investigator Awards
  

CAPO Members Research Expertise

Several CAPO members are engaged in psychosocial oncology research. CAPO members are often leading multidisciplinary teams nationally and internationally or are co-investigators within teams. Researchers may be clinician-scientists (engaged in clinical practice and research activities) or be full-time researchers working in research institutes. Other members are full-time academics engaged in psychosocial oncology research within an academic institution. In order to facilitate networking, opportunities for training internships, studentships and for collaborations a list of CAPO members along with their areas of research expertise is provided below.

Relevant links/Reports/Publications

Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) Psychosocial Report

CAPO Researchers

Tips for Getting Funded

Each year at the annual CAPO conference the Research Advisory Committee hosts a number of workshops or sessions geared towards building knowledge and skill in research. Examples from the past include grant-writing workshops, presentations on tips in getting funded, and sessions outlining practical issues and important ingredients in completing fellowship and studentship applications.

Below are website articles on issues related to preparing operating grants and getting funded that are helpful as you prepare your grant and personnel award applications.

Grant Writing

• An Evidence-Based Guide to Writing Grant Proposals for Clinical Research
  
• Experimental study design and grant writing in eight steps and 28 questions
  
• Developing and Submitting a Research Proposal in Psychosocial Oncology: Tips on Getting it Funded