An inventory of psychosocial oncological interventions in The Netherlands: identifying availability, gaps, and overlap in care provision

Abstract

Purpose: While a wide range of psychosocial oncological (PO) interventions has been developed, a systematic overview of interventions to inform patients, care providers, as well as researchers, policy makers and health insurers, is lacking. The aims of this paper were (1) to describe the attainment of this overview, which may be used in other jurisdictions and for other health conditions and (2) to reflect on what determines developments in this field.

Methods: Dutch researchers and care providers were invited to describe PO-interventions they apply in research or clinical practice. Selection criteria for what constituted a PO-intervention were determined. The input was organized in 12 predefined categories (e.g. physical functioning, genetics).

Findings: Sixty-six PO-interventions were included in the overview. Two major categories were psychosocial functioning (24%) and physical functioning and recovery (24%). Interventions are mostly directed at adults (65%) and not aimed at a specific type of cancer (61%). Nearly 25% of the interventions lacked scientific underpinning.

Conclusions: This paper provides an overview of Dutch PO-interventions and input on what drives their development. The categorizing method can be used in other jurisdictions and for other health care conditions. A next step would be to investigate the effectiveness and evidence of PO-interventions.

Implications for Psychosocial Providers and Policy: The open access overview of interventions provides referral information for care providers. By identifying possible gaps and overlap, the overview looks at possible drivers behind developments in this field which will be of interest to policy makers.

Keywords:

• needs assessment
• health care utilization
• cancer
• psychosocial support systems psychosocial oncology
• knowledge translation

Disclosure statement

Authors do not have a financial relationship with the grant provider. Authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

Data availability statement

Data for this study is accessible via https://issuu.com/nvpo/docs/interventies_in_de_psychosociale_on

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding).