Telephone counseling in psychosocial oncology: a report from the Cancer Information and Counseling Line.
Providing psychosocial counseling services to cancer patients and their significant others by telephone is emerging as an alternative to traditional (in-person) counseling programs in psychooncology. In this paper, data are reported describing the clients of such a program that has been in continuous operation since 1981: the Cancer Information and Counseling Line (CICL) of the AMC Cancer Research Center. An examination of call record forms completed between 1 June 1998 and 30 May 1999 (N = 1627) revealed that the vast majority of callers were female (77%), non-Hispanic White (77%), with at least some college education (62%). Only 27% were cancer patients/survivors, compared to 43% who were spouses, other relatives and friends of cancer patients/survivors, and 16% who were symptomatic callers. Breast cancer was by far the most frequently mentioned cancer site (30%). Although initial topics of inquiry were dominated by requests for medical information (77%), with only a small percentage of callers initially requesting psychosocial support and counseling (12%), by the time, the call was completed, 67% had received some form of psychosocial support and/or counseling. Recommendations for future research are discussed within the context of this review.
Marcus
Alfred C
AC
AMC Cancer Research Center, 1600 Pierce Street, Denver, CO 80214, USA. marcusa@amc.org
Garrett
Kathleen M
KM
Kulchak-Rahm
Alanna
A
Barnes
Denise
D
Dortch
Wendy
W
Juno
Sara
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003376:Counseling; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010353:Patient Education as Topic