CHENNAI: When her fiancé absconded just before her transplant, she lost all will to live and fight. “I agreed for chemotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) because I wanted to prove to him that I was alive,” said Harika, a survivor of bone and blood cancer. “It’s the psycho-oncologists who counseled me back to life. They told me that if I die my talent will remain hidden and wasted.”
The former software engineer is one among the several cancer survivors whose new-found meaning of life was inspired by counseling. Psycho-oncology is an emerging interdisciplinary field that puts counseling in context of cancer treatment. “Over 40% of all cancer patients undergo moderate to severe distress,” said Dr Surendran, Cancer Institute, Chennai. Counseling victims of chronic diseases such as cancer requires understanding and deep knowledge about the subject’s health.
Distress can set in at any stage beginning from diagnosis, treatment and recuperation. Psycho-oncologists are needed to break the news, explain the consequences, help patients make life decisions and deal with the side effects of chemotherapy. However, the need for these specialists was not realised until a few years ago. “It is important that counselors get specialised training because we can’t give false hopes with half wisdom about the disease,” said S Revathy, an M Phil student pursuing psycho-oncology at the Cancer Institute.
The M Phil programme, that has just six students a year, is available only two institutions in India that offers a course in psycho-oncology. The other is Centre of Psycho-Oncology for Education and Research, an associate of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.
“This is a new field and most hospitals are not aware of the difference it makes. When we graduate, we go to hospitals and establish the department there for the first time,” said Keshav Sharma, a psycho-oncologist, Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Assam. Over 80 patients come under her purview and she personally counsels over 20 distressed patients a day.
Distress levels in cancer patients are measured using the guidelines prescribed by National Comprehensive Cancer Network. If the value is higher than four in the prescribed ‘distress thermometer’, the patient is counseled by psycho-oncologists.
At Cancer Institute, Chennai, alone over 200 patients need therapy every day. But less than 10 psycho-oncologists are available in the city, though the scope of growth is massive in this field according to existing therapists.
Counselors specialised in the treatment of cancer patients are needed from prevention to palliation. “You know that there is great job satisfaction in this field when both victims and survivors say ‘I feel so much better after talking to you’,” said Keshav Sharma.