1. Figure 4 Management of personal care needs
Figure 4 | Management of personal care needs. The diagrams depict schematically how different health-care teams can address the personal needs of patients with cancer, including the acute issues, chronic issues, psychosocial issues, and existential issues. Oncology teams have an important role in providing primary palliative care; however, addressing all personal care needs comprehensively might be difficult for these teams, owing to time constraints, a lack of routine screening for care needs, unavailability of interdisciplinary team members, and limited advanced expertise in supportive-care issues. Psychosocial teams often have a narrow focus for palliative care (for example, spirituality for chaplains, anxiety and depression for psychologists and psychiatrists, family and financial issues for social workers, child care for child-life specialists), and rarely address physical symptoms fully. Palliative-care teams, because of their interdisciplinary nature and expertise, can comprehensively manage the personal care needs of patients, longitudinally.
Hui, D. & Bruera, E. (2015) Integrating palliative care into the trajectory of cancer care
Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. doi: /nrclinonc