News Releases
Budget Recently Passed by Congress Provided $1,000,000 to fund a study regarding the delivery of psychosocial care to individuals with cancer and their families.
December 2, 2004
Friends,
We have just learned that the budget recently passed by Congress provided $1,000,000 to fund a study regarding the delivery of psychosocial care to individuals with cancer and their families. This measure originated in conjunction with efforts to leverage the learnings from the ICAN Program-a Florida based demonstration of the delivery of psychosocial services to cancer patients and their families delivered in the community setting, provided as a philanthropic program of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. One of the important learnings from the ICAN Program was that despite the demonstrated need and demand for psychosocial services and success in delivering this model that there remain clear barriers to access and reimbursement for this care. TEN, together with the ICAN partners worked to develop a sustainability strategy which included a proposal to initiate a report such as this as well as additional training programs for mental health providers which builds on the ICAN training.
Importantly, this study calls for evaluation of areas which are critical to TEN’s broader mission of addressing access to care for patients with mental health and medical co-occurring illness. In the section governing General Departmental Management within the Office of the Secretary, the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying H.R. 4818 states:
"The conferees are concerned about the absence of mechanisms to ensure the delivery of necessary psychosocial care to individuals with cancer and their family members. The conference agreement provides $1,000,000 for the Secretary, working in collaboration with the Institute of Medicine and relevant government agencies and non-profit entities, to study the delivery of psychosocial services to cancer patients and their families in the community setting. Specifically, the report should include an analysis of: (1) the capacity of the current mental health and oncology provider system to deliver such care and the anticipated resources required nationwide; (2) available training programs for professionals providing psychosocial and mental health services; and (3) existing barriers to access to such care. The Secretary is encouraged to issue recommendations to address these issues."
The legislative text of the Conference Report and the Joint Explanatory Statement are available through the House Rules Committee's web site at: http://www.house.gov/rules/h4818crfulltext.htm
TEN is now beginning the work with staff from the Appropriations Committee, ICAN, HHS, IOM and others to best define the specific analyses that will be required to best address the issues outlined and maximize the impact of the findings. This is a critical step for the field and represents an important opportunity for TEN to not only define the agenda for co-occurring medical and psychiatric disorders and their treatment, but the policy steps that must be taken in order to assure that access to this care is available. In the next several weeks we will be in touch with you with further information and will hope to receive your feedback and thoughts about how we might best utilize this opportunity.
As always, your support and encouragement have been essential in allowing TEN to do this critical work.
Best regards,
Carol L. Alter, M.D.
