Psychoonkologisches Screening — interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit in der Onkologie

In addition to physical impairment, cancer may be accompanied by a wide range of forms of psychological distress. Psycho-oncological screening serves to identify mentally distressed cancer patients in order to provide them with needs-oriented and targeted psycho-oncological care. In the process, relevant areas of stress (need) such as worries, fears, depressiveness, and the patient’s own desire for support (demand) are recorded. In clinical practice, however, there are various obstacles in the implementation of psycho-oncological screening as well as in the referral of distressed patients to psycho-oncology. There are new guidelines and approaches to psycho-oncological screening and a training concept aimed at promoting interdisciplinary collaboration between psycho-oncological, nursing, and medical teams as well as the implementation of screening. Adequate use of the screening instruments combined with trained communication on psycho-oncological support services serves to improve the identification and care of mentally distressed cancer patients.