Maggie's in the News - Press Release - Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project helps cancer patients and caregivers
Early onset cancers: Emotional breakdowns of parents and worries about recurrence contribute to stress of younger patients
Research conducted by HKU proves the Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project helps patients and families relieve stress, reduces their perceived distress and improves family members’ mental quality of life
The incidence of early-onset cancers has increased. According to the latest statistics1, almost half of new cancer cases in Hong Kong involve relatively young patients. Among these younger patients, almost one in five are under 45 years old. The situation faced by these younger patients (such as returning to work, concerns about recurrence and parents’ emotional issues) are completely different from older patients. In light of this trend, the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society (HKACS) launched the Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project (“Project”), with support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, to provide enhanced, holistic and tailor-made support to younger cancer patients and their families. According to the latest HKU research, the Project has successfully helped patients and their families relieve stress, reduced perceived distress, and improved the mental quality of life of family members.
Today (25 March), Mr Horace Lit, Executive Manager, Charities (Healthy Community) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, together with Dr. Leong Che Hung, President of the HKACS, officiated at the launching ceremony of the Project. Mrs. Chu Yeung Pak Yu, Patricia, Chairman of the HKACS expressed her gratitude towards The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for its continuing support. “Early-onset cancers are increasing. Other than immediate concerns like treatment options and financial pressure, younger patients would also worry about returning to work after recovery and cancer recurrence in the coming decades. Meanwhile, parents of these patients are also living under the fear of losing their children, in addition to the exhaustion from caregiving duties, which may cause emotional breakdowns that can further pressurize the cancer patients. We would like to thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for supporting the Project so that we can provide holistic support to older patients, as well as younger patients and their families.”
Mr Horace Lit, Executive Manager, Charities (Healthy Community) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club said, “Building a Healthy Community is one of the priority areas of the Club’s charity strategy. The Club is committed to helping people from all ages and with different needs access better medical care services through cross-sector collaboration and innovative thinking. This program will help improve the quality of life of cancer patients and provide support to patients and their families at all stages - from diagnosis, to treatment, to recovery."
The Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project: A patient-centred project providing seamless support.
The HKACS launched the pilot Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project in 2011 to provide patient-centred, family based and community-outreach support to patients and their family members. Services include provision of cancer information, professional consultation, outreach and emotional support. Each case is followed by a social worker or a nurse, in addition to support group meetings and family outdoor activities that can strengthen bonding and promote mutual support amongst cancer survivors. The Project has been funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust since 2015, supporting 10,186 cases (that is 27,503 cancer survivors and caregivers) between September 2015 and December 2023. Most of them (42%) are at stage IV, with the follow-up period lasting from four to nine months on average. The support service is available in different districts and is provided by the HKACS together with the Christian Family Service Centre, the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation, the HKSKH Lady Maclehose Centre and Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre.
HKU research: the Project provides significant help to patients and caregivers.
In order to identify the psychosocial challenges cancer survivors and their caregivers are facing, and the effectiveness of the Project, the HKACS has commissioned the Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) to conduct research. 174 cancer survivors (including 110 younger survivors) and 131 caregivers were interviewed. The research compared their condition before (baseline) and after joining the Project for 3 months. Data was collected via questionnaires on mental health status and focus group interviews.
Before joining the Project, the perceived distress of cancer survivors and caregivers in Hong Kong was higher than overseas:
The research found that the perceived distress of survivors and caregivers was reduced significantly after joining the programme for 3 months:
- The perceived distress of both survivors and caregivers was reduced by over 20% (21.4% and 20.2% respectively)
- General mental health of caregivers improved by 20.7%
- The negative feelings and social avoidance of survivors improved by 15.9% and 11.6% respectively
- The positive feelings of survivors was enhanced by 16.7%
- Younger survivors’ distress about their family was reduced by 12.4%
Dr. Wan Ho Yin, Adrian, Centre on Behavioral Health, HKU said, “The findings suggest that cancer survivors and caregivers in Hong Kong have stronger negative feelings in various aspects than their overseas counterparts. Thus, timely intervention is essential.”
The research also suggested younger patients and caregivers are co-dependenant. Prof. Ho Tin Hung, Rainbow, Director of the Centre on Behavioral Health, HKU, said, “Emotionally, Hongkongers are more restrained than foreigners, and not too used to expressing their feelings even with their family members. The tendency to suppress an uneasy feeling may result in greater pressure and distress. On the other hand, family members rely on and interact with each other. The emotional breakdown of their parents can further pressurize patients. The Project provides support to both cancer patients and caregivers, which makes the improvement more significant.”
HKACS urges regularization of the cancer support service by the government, given the rising demand.
Mrs. Chu Yeung Pak Yu, Patricia, Chairman of the HKACS, is encouraged by the research results, “The HKACS has been providing personalized integrative ‘body-mind-spirit’ and community support to cancer patients and their family members in order to fill the gap of cancer support services. We keep enhancing the Project from time to time to address the needs of patients and caregivers. In the long run, service needs will continue to increase. We hope the government can take the lead to provide relevant services or provide grants to social service organisations, so that all patients and caregivers in need can obtain support in a timely manner.”
Those in need can contact the Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project by calling 3921-3777.
About The Jockey Club Cancer Survivorship Care Project
Our social workers/nurses reach out to provide personalised, family-based, community support for patients and their caregivers along different stages of the cancer continuum. Services include telephone counselling, home visits, hospital outreach support, integrative body-mind-spirit programmes, purchase of community services (i.e. Chinese medicine, counselling, dietary, physiotherapy, home help, escort service, etc.) Same social worker/nurse will follow up the family for 4-9 months depending on their situation. All services are free of charge.
1 醫管局——香港癌症資料統計中心. https://www3.ha.org.hk/cancereg/allagesresult.asp