Personalised cancer care

Personalised Care

Personalised Care will benefit up to 2.5 million people by 2024, giving them the same choice and control over their mental and physical health that they have come to expect in every other aspect of their life. A one-size-fits-all health and care system simply cannot meet the increasing complexity of people’s needs and expectations. Personalised care is based on ‘what matters’ to people and their individual strengths and needs. Personalised care and support planning is a series of facilitated conversations in which the person, or those who know them well, actively participates to explore the management of their health and well-being within the context of their whole life and family situation. Personalised care and support planning is key for people receiving health and social care services. It is an essential tool to integrate the person’s experience of all the services they access so they have one joined-up plan that covers their health and wellbeing needs. The process recognises the person’s skills and strengths, as well as their experiences and the things that matter the most to them. It addresses the things that are not working in the person’s life and identifies outcomes or goals and actions to resolve these.

More people than ever are living with and beyond cancer. Receiving care that is tailored to a person’s needs can have a significant impact on their experience and quality of life. Cancer Alliances are working to ensure that every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards.

Personalised Care and Support Planning (based on holistic needs assessments) ensures people’s physical, practical, emotional and social needs are identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity. You should be offered an HNA by your CNS or Support Worker to identify any issues or concerns.

End of Treatment Summaries provide both the person and their GP with valuable information, including a detailed summary of treatment completed, potential side effects, signs and symptoms of recurrence and contact details to address any concerns.

Health and Wellbeing Information and Support includes the provision of accessible information about emotional support, coping with side effects, financial advice, getting back to work and making healthy lifestyle choices. This support will be available before, during and after cancer treatment.

Contact

Katherine Hamer

Personalised Care Project Manager

katherine.hamer@nhs.net

01737 768511 Ext 7002

Cancer Support Workers work as part of the cancer care team to improve care for people with cancer. They work with other professionals and provide support by dealing with non-complex tasks to allow registered practitioners to focus their expertise on managing the complex care needs. They provide coordination of care to people mostly after cancer treatment, who can be enabled to self-manage their own care with support, with open access back to their team. They are vital to providing personalised care and can give advice on your diagnosis, treatments and life with and after cancer treatment. You can email them via sash.cancersupportworkers@nhs.net. Or you can find the specific tumour cancer support workers below:

Carli Baverstock