What is the status of Psychology Services in Iranian Cancer Control Center (MACSA)?

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization, palliative care is one of the main components of healthcare system. Palliative care has evolved from serving patients at the end of life into a highly specialized discipline focused on delivering supportive care to patients with life limiting illnesses throughout the disease trajectory. There is substantial research on psychological interventions in palliative care that shows promising results. One of palliative care programs and policies are to improve the utilization of psychology services in cancer patients. In this article, the status of Psychology Services in Iranian Cancer Control Center was described.Materials and Methods: The main aim of this research is to show the frequency and percentage of psychological services provided by MACSA from March ۲۰۰۹ to August ۲۰۲۳ in Tehran. This study targets patients themselves, patients’ family members and patients’ caregivers who their information has been extracted from MACSA database. Psychology services are delivered in six ways ۱) Phone call to patients directly ۲) Receiving a phone call from patients ۳) In hospital’s psychological clinics, ۴) Inpatients ۵) home visit and other. A descriptive analysis was performed by SPSS software version ۲۷. Results: Iranian Cancer Control Center so called as MACSA has been founded initially in Isfahan state in ۲۰۰۹. This center has been gradually grown up as more branches all over the country particularly in Tehran, Iran’s capital According to the most recent data, MACSA has included over ۳۳۱۲۷ patients with cancer from March ۲۰۰۹ to August ۲۰۲۳. In Tehran from October ۲۰۱۶ to August ۲۰۲۳ MACSA has successfully covered up ۲۱۳۹۹ patients which is ۶۰ percent of the whole patients. Also, ۵۱۹۲ out of ۲۱۳۹۹ subjects, which is ۲۳ percent of the whole patients in Tehran, have been receiving. Psychology services and ۲۲۳۲۸ psychology services are delivered. Need to mention that these services have been received by three categories including patients themselves, patients’ family members and patients’ caregivers. Finally, psychology services led patients in the end stage of cancer to live their last years with less mental issues and more sense of social life.Conclusions: Palliative care provide conditions by which cancer patients and their family will have the opportunity to receive psychological care in different situations. Results show that palliative care program has been successful in supporting either cancer patients or their family with psychological services.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cancer ، Palliative care ، Psychology ، Psychological issues