School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Level 4, Hughes Building, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005 Australia.
Support Care Cancer. 2013 Sep;21(9):2547-55. doi: 10.1007/s00520-013-1812-9. Epub 2013 May 2.
This study aims to identify key issues associated with the provision of psychosocial care from the perspective of rural Australian cancer patients and determine culturally appropriate methods that may reduce barriers to service use.
Seventeen purposively sampled adult South Australians who lived outside metropolitan Adelaide, had a diagnosis of cancer and various demographic and medical histories participated in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Five key themes were identified: (1) psychosocial support is highly valued by those who have accessed it, (2) having access to both lay and professional psychosocial support is vitally important, (3) accessing psychosocial services is made difficult by several barriers (lack of information about services, initial beliefs they are unnecessary, feeling overwhelmed and concerns about stigma and dual relationships), (4) medical staff located in metropolitan treatment centres are not sufficiently aware of the unique needs of rural patients and (5) patients require better access to psychosocial services post-treatment. Methods through which rural patients believe access to psychosocial services could be improved include: (1) providing more rural-specific information on psychosocial care, (2) improving communication between health care providers and referral to psychosocial services and (3) making psychosocial services a standard part of care.
Rural cancer patients want their unique needs to be recognised and to be treated differently to their urban counterparts. There is a need for more targeted and rurally relevant information for rural cancer patients, both to inform them of, and change their attitudes towards, psychosocial services. Other practical recommendations are also discussed.
本研究旨在从澳大利亚农村癌症患者的角度确定与提供心理社会关怀相关的关键问题，并确定可能减少服务使用障碍的文化上适当的方法。
17 名来自南澳大利亚州的成年人参与了这项研究，他们居住在阿德莱德大都市区之外，被诊断患有癌症，且具有各种人口统计学和医学病史。这些参与者接受了半结构化的面对面访谈，并填写了一份人口统计学问卷。使用主题分析对定性数据进行分析。
确定了五个关键主题：（1）那些获得心理社会支持的人高度重视这种支持；（2）获得非专业和专业心理社会支持非常重要；（3）由于多种障碍（缺乏关于服务的信息、最初认为服务不必要、感到不知所措、对污名化和双重关系的担忧），获得心理社会服务变得困难；（4）位于大都市治疗中心的医务人员对农村患者的独特需求认识不足；（5）患者在治疗后需要更好地获得心理社会服务。农村患者认为可以改善获得心理社会服务的方法包括：（1）提供更多关于心理社会关怀的农村特定信息；（2）改善医疗保健提供者之间的沟通和向心理社会服务的转介；（3）使心理社会服务成为护理的标准部分。
农村癌症患者希望他们的独特需求得到认可，并希望得到与城市患者不同的治疗。农村癌症患者需要更多针对农村的、与心理社会服务相关的信息，以告知他们心理社会服务，并改变他们对这些服务的态度。还讨论了其他实际建议。
