Telephone counseling in psychosocial oncology: a report from the Cancer Information and Counseling Line.

Abstract

Providing psychosocial counseling services to cancer patients and their significant others by telephone is emerging as an alternative to traditional (in-person) counseling programs in psychooncology. In this paper, data are reported describing the clients of such a program that has been in continuous operation since 1981: the Cancer Information and Counseling Line (CICL) of the AMC Cancer Research Center. An examination of call record forms completed between 1 June 1998 and 30 May 1999 (N = 1627) revealed that the vast majority of callers were female (77%), non-Hispanic White (77%), with at least some college education (62%). Only 27% were cancer patients/survivors, compared to 43% who were spouses, other relatives and friends of cancer patients/survivors, and 16% who were symptomatic callers. Breast cancer was by far the most frequently mentioned cancer site (30%). Although initial topics of inquiry were dominated by requests for medical information (77%), with only a small percentage of callers initially requesting psychosocial support and counseling (12%), by the time, the call was completed, 67% had received some form of psychosocial support and/or counseling. Recommendations for future research are discussed within the context of this review.