Effectively Engaging Caregivers to Support your Older Adult Patients with Cancer-Effectively Engaging Caregivers to Support your Older Adult Patients with Cancer

Video Transcription

Video Summary

This webinar focused on how oncology teams can better engage, assess, and support caregivers of older adults with cancer. Laura Rhodes described caregivers as unpaid family members or friends who provide extensive emotional, physical, logistical, and sometimes skilled medical care. She highlighted the growing number of older adults with cancer, the heavy time and financial burden on caregivers, and the risks caregivers face, including stress, depression, fatigue, and poor health. She emphasized routine caregiver assessment, asking who is available to help, what roles they can take on, and using geriatric assessment and caregiver burden tools to identify needs early.  <br /><br />Shelley Rosenfeld reviewed key legal issues, especially advance care planning. She explained the importance of advance directives, surrogate decision-makers, POLST forms, HIPAA access, and state-specific laws that help ensure a patient’s wishes are followed if they become incapacitated. She also stressed that planning ahead reduces confusion, conflict, and delays in care.  <br /><br />Denise Economo shared practical caregiver resources, including ACS caregiver guides, Cancer Support Community, Family Caregiver Alliance, National Caregivers Library, CanCare, and ACCC materials. She also suggested using smartphones, apps, videos, and telehealth to teach caregiving tasks and improve communication. Across all presentations, the central message was that caregivers are essential partners in care, and supporting them can improve outcomes for both patients and families.

Keywords

oncology caregivers

older adults with cancer

caregiver burden

caregiver assessment

advance care planning

advance directives

surrogate decision-maker

POLST forms

HIPAA access

caregiver resources