Psychosocial oncology services in New South Wales.

There is limited published evidence about how psychosocial services should be organised or routinely integrated into cancer services to ensure that cancer patients receive appropriate psychological, social and emotional support during periods of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. This paper reports on a survey of 26 oncology services in New South Wales, Australia, to examine the current provision of psychosocial oncology services. The aim of the study was to gather baseline data and information about the provision of services and to identify significant challenges associated with the development and implementation of psychosocial oncology services.

The effects of personal construct group therapy on breast cancer survivors.

In this study, the authors evaluated the effects of a brief personal construct group therapy on breast cancer survivors (N=42) randomly assigned to either the treatment or wait-list control condition. The Gottschalk Gleser Content Analysis Scales were used to measure the effects for group across time (pre- and posttreatment, pretreatment, and 3-month posttreatment) on the personal construct states of threat, threat to existence, dislocation, and hope. Analyses showed that the beneficial effects of therapy achieved posttreatment were maintained at 3-month follow-up.