Specialty: Cancer, Primary sub-specialty: Palliative and supportive care
Conditions
Interventions
Patients completing baseline assessment (T=0) will be allocated to either intervention or control group using a telephone system provided by Manchester Academic Health Science Centre Clinical Trials U
Sponsors
Lancaster University
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Patient inclusion criteria: 1. Aged 16 years and over 2. With advanced cancer (any type), defined as metastatic disease at diagnosis, and/or with local or metastatic spread following treatment and/or where prognosis is estimated as less than a year. Those whom their health care professionals judge to have a prognosis > 3 months to facilitate study completion. 3. Those whom their health care professionals judge have capacity to give informed consent to research participation. 4. Assessed by their health care professional as understanding their diagnosis of advanced cancer. 5. Able to adequately understand and respond to verbal and written material in English. Peer Mentor inclusion criteria: 1. Experience of living with cancer 2. At least six months post diagnosis 3. Aged 18 years and over 4. Able to commit to six months of volunteering 5. Have at least two hours per week available for volunteering 6. Live in the geographic area selected for the project 7. Fluency in written and spoken English 8. Qualitative demonstration of empathy, compassion, and open and non-didactic communication skills 9. Satisfactory completion of project-specific training (assessed by research team) 10. DBS clearance for working with vulnerable people. Carer and Professional Participants: Recruited patients will be asked to nominate one “person they get most support from”, and an invitation to participate sent to this identified carer. In addition, patient participants will nominate one healthcare professional providing cancer and/or palliative care to them on a regular basis, and an invitation to participate will be sent to this identified healthcare professional.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Patient criteria: 1. Aged under 16 years 2. With advanced cancer prognosis < 3 months 3. Those whom their health care professionals judge not to have capacity to give informed consent to research participation 4. Assessed by their health care professional as not understanding their diagnosis of advanced cancer Peer Mentor criteria: 1. No experience of living with cancer 2. Less than months post diagnosis 3. Aged under 18 years 4. Unable to commit to six months of volunteering 5. ave less than two hours per week available for volunteering 6. Live outside the geographic area selected for the project 7. No qualitative demonstration of empathy, compassion, and open and non-didactic communication skills 8. Unable to be granted DBS clearance for working with vulnerable people Carer Participants: 1. Aged under 18 years 2. Caring for someone with an advanced cancer prognosis < 3 months 3. Those whom patient's health care professionals judge not to have capacity to give informed consent to research participation 4. Assessed by the patient's health care professional as not understanding the associated patient's diagnosis of advanced cancer Professional Participants: No exclusion criteria
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Patient and carer psychological wellbeing is measured using the WHO Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Patient and carer psychological wellbeing (WHOQOL-BREF) at T = 12 weeks (or completion of intervention if before 12 weeks). 2. Patient health related quality of life is measured using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ C 15 PAL) at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks (or completion of intervention if before 12 weeks) 3. Patient and carer coping strategies is measured using the Brief Coping Orientation for Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) questionnaire at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks (or completion of intervention if before 12 weeks) 4. Patient depression is measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks (or completion of intervention if before 12 weeks) 5. Social Support is measured using the modified Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (mMOS-SS) in patient participants, and the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) questionnaire in carer participants) at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks (or completion of intervention if before 12 weeks) | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Contacts
Public ContactDiane Roberts
Outcome results
None listed