Cancer-related distress impacts quality of care, resource use, and patient outcomes. Patients are increasingly screened for distress, yet many do not receive coping resources and psychosocial support services that may help to reduce their distress. Distress screening must be paired with attention to the different phases of the distress and coping process, with emphasis on barriers and facilitators of cancer patients’ use of coping resources. This paper offers a conceptual model illustrating key pathways and modifying factors of distress and use of coping resources among cancer patients, and potential roles for cancer care providers and institutions in facilitating effective coping and distress reduction.
Click on the PDF icon at the top of this introduction to read the full article.