[Barriers upon providing assistance with making arrangements for discharging and changing from hospitals while a patient is undergoing cancer therapy--when he is in the state of depression (from the perspective of psycho- oncologist)].

During a cancer therapy, a fine-tuned response is necessary for a patient to stay home with family for a longer period of time. Especially the patient is near the end of life. Based on the Basic Plan to Promote Cancer Control programs, our hospital established a cancer consulting support center and a palliative care team in June 2009, and staffed them with multidisciplinary personnel. With medical staffs involved as a team, we considered a shared decision making repeatedly in compliance with inpatient 's wishes for home care. One of the problems the author experienced frequently was that a patient would take a long time for a decision making due to the state of mental depression. Hence, we simply couldn't send him home, or we would fail to make a right timing for sending him home. Due to a patient's inability to make own decision, a home care period could not be shortened, so that a careful daily observation is desired to keep an eye for signs of depression and to provide appropriate responses.