NEED FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL CARE OF ONCOLOGY PATIENTS - ANALYSIS OF PRESENTSTATE AND NEED IN GERMANY

A comparison of acute care, inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient af tercare in Germany reveals significant differences in the quality acid spreading of psychosocial services for cancer patients. Planning psyc hosocial care for cancer patients, we have to consider patients' needs for psychosocial care as well as the health professionals' estimation of patients' needs and the demand for health care services. Analyses of patients' requirements have shown that the needs which patients def ined themselves differ from the needs estimated by experts. Therefore, decisions made in health care must be based on systematic data acquir ed by various approaches. Within the frame of evaluation performed in the research program,,Rehabilitation of Cancer Patients'' funded by th e German Ministry of Research (the former BMFT), data from two studies are presented investigating the need for psychosocial care in oncolog y using two different approaches. In one study we investigated the sta tus quo of psychosocial care for cancer patients in acute hospitals (n = 585) and rehabilitation centers (n = 42). By use of the Delphi tech nique, the second study focusses on an analysis of patients' need esti mated by health professionals (n = 34). Comparing both studies, defici ts in psychosocial care for cancer patients were found especially in a cute hospitals and outpatient aftercare services. Methodological probl ems of the two approaches are discussed and further research strategie s are suggested.