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Psychosocial counseling of cancer patients by telephone: A brief note on patient acceptance of an outcall strategy
Author(s) -
Marcus Alfred C.,
Cella David,
Sedlacek Scot,
Crawford E. David,
Crane Lori A.,
Garrett Kathy,
Quigel Christine,
Gonin Rene
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.2960020307
Subject(s) - telephone counseling , psychosocial , schedule , family medicine , medicine , service (business) , telephone interview , psychology , nursing , psychiatry , business , social science , marketing , sociology , computer science , intervention (counseling) , operating system
Telephone counseling of cancer patients has existed on a limited basis for a number of years. One aspect of telephone counseling that has not been adequately explored involves using an outcall strategy, in which the counseling service would call the patient according to a prearranged schedule. Such a strategy could be used to overcome the potentially significant barrier of requiring the patient to proactively call the counseling service. As a preliminary phase in the development of a larger program of research on telephone counseling of cancer patients, two feasibility studies were conducted to assess patient willingness to receive outcall telephone counseling and their willingness to share sensitive psychosocial concerns over the telephone. The results obtained from both feasibility studies suggest that telephone outcalls are feasible for both breast and prostate cancer patients. Additional research is proposed to test the efficacy of psychosocial counseling by telephone using an outcall format.