Beyond Distress Screening

Abstract

Abstract Managing distress in cancer patients via a comprehensive system of screening, assessment, triage, intervention, and outcome monitoring is an evidence-informed approach to whole-person care that optimizes a range of health and quality-of-life outcomes. The chapter addresses the importance of assessing patients’ material needs, as well as their psychological and emotional concerns, as necessary for reducing distress and delivering high-quality cancer care, particularly for patients from socially marginalized and historically oppressed populations. It emphasizes structural competency—an understanding and acknowledgment within clinical care settings of how social and environmental factors influence vulnerability and needs among cancer patients—as critical for mitigating distress among cancer patients and achieving health equity. Achieving enhanced patient experience, improved population health, and cost containment will require a transformation of medical care, in general, and cancer care, specifically, including role delineation and standardization of competencies for oncology and palliative care social workers.