Justin N Baker
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA
Title: Cancer is stressful, but life is too: Integrating palliative care into the ongoing care of adolescent & young adult oncology patients
Biography
Biography: Justin N Baker
Abstract
Background: Adolescence is a period of increasing independence and the establishment of self with separation from family and emphasis on peer-relations. Cancer complicates the achievement of these developmental norms by requiring adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients to confront the possibility of personal mortality. Survivors diagnosed as AYA have significantly greater psychological distress than those diagnosed earlier in childhood, yet little is known about variables that may contribute to development of negative psychological outcomes during this period of transition and vulnerability. Conclusion: Clinicians working with AYA oncology patients should recognize the importance of comprehensive psychosocial support for this patient population that is focused not only with coping with the cancer diagnosis, but also coping in the setting of other life-stressors that overlay the cancer experience. Lessons learned from caring for this difficult patient population and ways to integrate palliative care will be shared.