Prostate cancer presents an acute challenge to our society and our health service. But, most of all, it can have a terrible impact on the men who are diagnosed and their loved ones who support them. It’s the most common cancer in England with 63,000 men diagnosed every year and close to 500,000 men living with the disease. And it can affect anyone, former Prime Minister David Cameron has just revealed he had prostate cancer.
The earlier you find prostate cancer, the easier it is to treat. So, understandably, the focus of conversations around prostate cancer tends towards early diagnosis and screening programmes. But neither must we lose sight of those half a million men trying to navigate their way through the ordeal of facing the disease.
Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer will be given a choice of treatments, and many like Lord Cameron describe the shock of not only hearing they have cancer but also learning that it is up to them to decide how that cancer should be treated.
It can feel like a cruel choice, because those decisions can be life-changing and unalterable. The list of side effects from treatment is long and can strike at the very heart of a man’s sense of self, dignity and relationships. They can include incontinence, erectile problems and loss of libido among many others.
Impacts on mental health can therefore seem almost inevitable, from the shock of diagnosis, the stresses of treatment decisions and the potential for regret, to processing the lasting physical impact of disease and treatment.
But mental health challenges are not unavoidable, and they’re not an afterthought, to only be considered if there’s time. The mental health challenges of prostate cancer are an integral part of the picture, and support should be no less integrated.
Solutions should not be seen as an expensive ‘nice to have’, because mental health support doesn’t just mean lying on a chaise longue talking to a psychiatrist.
Getting mental health support right at the right time can be as easy as asking how someone is feeling. At each stage of the pathway, from the doorway in at the GPs to the exit out of the urology department, there are so many opportunities for support. There are resources, groups, classes and services that far too few men even hear about, let alone utilise.
We know that when men are given the right information and feel fully involved in decision making, they’re much less likely to be impacted by regret. Evidence clearly shows that the more time patients have with a nurse, the better their quality of life.
We can be smarter about all of this. At one West London hospital, men undergoing hormone therapy for prostate cancer are automatically opted in to their support programme and only asked if they don’t wish to participate. We don’t have to increase demands on consultants’ time or NHS nurses’ workloads.
Cancer charities, including Prostate Cancer UK, are developing programmes with the NHS around ‘direct referral’, enabling clinicians to guide men towards the support they need. These services are delivered by specialist charity nurses, easing the burden on NHS staff.
While Prostate Cancer Research runs an ‘Infopool’ website, where men and their families can hear from others who’ve walked the same path – more than 1,000 real stories about diagnosis, treatment choices, side effects, and how they coped. Knowing you’re not alone and learning from others with similar experiences can make a massive difference.
The bottom line is this: every person who has a diagnosis of prostate cancer should get a Holistic Needs Assessment; a look at the impact cancer is having across each aspect of their life – as per the Daily Express Cancer Care Campaign. But too often these have become “tick-box exercises” or exclusively focused on the physical impacts.
The Holistic Needs Assessment offers the ideal opportunity to discuss the mental health impacts of cancer and refer patients to support – whether that’s community offerings, or more specialist psychological help.
The upcoming National Cancer Plan presents a real opportunity for the Government to place mental health support at the centre of patient care. We must find better ways to ensure men aren’t left isolated and suffering.
The big shift from hospital to community care that this Labour Government has committed to could create the space for this to happen. What I want to see is a cancer plan that is ambitious for the thousands of men whose lives are impacted by prostate cancer and that understands the whole of their needs.
Calvin Bailey MBE MP is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostate Cancer
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
