WITH A DIFFERENT VOICE - INTEGRATING THE PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE INTO ROUTINE ONCOLOGY CARE

We have established a psychosocial support system that is highly integ rated with physician activities and that is tailored to the special ne eds of our patient population. The core of this system is the close in teraction between the physician and the patient counselor, who is a cl inical social worker and psychotherapist. Viewed as a permanent member of the breast cancer team, the patient counselor provides psychosocia l care in the oncology clinic using normal clinic events as vehicles f or interaction. Thus, time spent waiting in the clinic and follow-up p hone calls can be converted to sessions for psychological counselling. This approach has been effective in our patient population, where soc ial biases and financial constraints limit the use of out-of-clinic ps ychiatric services.