Issues over the quality of cancer patient care is a real issue right now. But is there a link to increased risks of suicide that\u2019s caused by inadequate care?<\/p>\n
A recent government study found that cancer patients can be at an increased risk of suicide. The increased risk may be as high as 20%.<\/p>\n
It sounds feasible to link cancer patients to an increased risk of suicide given what they have to go through. But when we\u2019re seeing more and more issues arising over inadequate cancer patient care and funding constraints, is there a link?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The increased suicide risks are predominant with cancers that have the poor prognoses, such as:<\/p>\n
What we want to know is whether this is linked to inadequate cancer patient care. Any lack of funding is an open door to negligence<\/strong><\/a>, and we can\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n This is said to be the first study of its kind, and it\u2019s been theorised that the reasons may be complex, but could be linked to the fear of pain and the side-effects of treatment; both of which can be horrendous.<\/p>\n You\u2019d think that continual advances in cancer patient care would lead to a reduction in the risk of suicide. It\u2019s possibly hard to know whether there has been a reduction given this is a new study of its kind.<\/p>\n We know that more people are now surviving their cancer, yet people appear to be still struggling to cope. We therefore may need to look at better emotional support for cancer patients. The information released with the study suggests that emotional support needs to be better integrated with the patient care to avoid such deaths.<\/p>\n However, when we\u2019re calling for increased funding after stories emerging of inadequate cancer care resources<\/strong><\/a>, will such support become available?<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear to us that better funding is needed to ensure we have a proper standard of cancer patient care. Emotional support must be better integrated to reduce the risks of suicide.<\/p>\nShouldn\u2019t advances in cancer patient care reduce suicide?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Better funding required to support cancer patient care<\/strong><\/h3>\n