Is It Helpful to Give Older People with Cancer the Same Chance at Rehabilitation as Older General Medical Patients

Although the complexity of age combined with a cancer diagnosis can result in unmet supportive care needs there are seldom resources to assess or address such needs for older people with cancer (OPWC). The purpose of this project was to trial a service to improve the care for OPWC through (1) an expanded supportive care screening process and (2) capacity building of subacute ambulatory care services (SACS) staff to increase referrals to community-based rehabilitation. Methods/design: Collaboration between allied health (AH) staff at an inner city general hospital with a large cancer service, a cancer specialist hospital, and a SACS service in Melbourne, Australia, developed an AH geriatric screening assessment (GSA) tool. Parallel to this process training was provided to SACS staff in relation to working with OPWC. Although close to one half (44%) of SACS staff who participated in this program (n = 22) had over 6 years’ experience, 32% had not worked with OPWC. Prior to training, 81% did not feel confiden...