TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - A Model: Supporting the Caregiver through the Crisis of Cancer A1 - Tacchi, Phyddy A2 - Duffy, James D. A2 - Valentine, Alan D. PY - 2016 T2 - MD Anderson Manual of Psychosocial Oncology AB - Cancer caregivers are a ubiquitous, stressed, and burdened population with little social or professional support. Estimated new cancer cases in the United States in 2009 as projected by the American Cancer Society1 will affect 1,479,350 people. Of those newly diagnosed >1 million patients, 65% will likely survive at least 5 years, a notable improvement over previous survival rates of 50% of those diagnosed from 1974 to 1976 and 54% from 1983 to 1985.2 Not too long ago, having cancer was considered an acute disease carrying a high mortality rate. At present, many of those same cancers are treated with various therapies that may extend a patient's life beyond previous medical expectations, enabling him or her to live with a chronic disease with a fluctuating level of quality of life. Given that patients are now living longer and, in some cases, sicker, the role of and need for caregiving is extended. There are now over 22.4 million families caring for their chronically medically ill loved ones as a result of earlier hospital discharges in an attempt to control costs.3 Because of these attempts to control medical costs by shortening hospital stays as well as lengthened survival rates, the home has become an outpatient medical care setting. The caregiver, although in most cases not formally medically trained, is providing the bulk of daily medical care from the initial diagnosis to the end of life for many patients. Caregivers are now performing complex medical tasks that not too long ago were performed solely by highly trained and experienced inpatient nurses. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1125786009 ER -