Australian Social Work is the journal of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). In 2019 a proposal was submitted to the journal’s Editorial Board to devote a special issue to the topic of cancer and social work. This proposal resulted from an ongoing academic-practitioner collaboration between Dr Rosalie Pockett from the University of Sydney School of Social Work and Education, and various oncology social workers who are represented in organisations including Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA), Psycho-Oncology Co-Operative Research Group (PoCoG) and Oncology Social Work Australia and New Zealand (OSWANZ). Collectively, the group had undertaken research projects which were published in Australia and overseas. I, alongside Dr Pockett were approved as the joint Guest Editors for this edition.
A call for papers was circulated in 2020, and the response was encouraging. Finally, the Special Issue of the Journal, having encountered some setbacks related to the global pandemic, was released in April 2022. Ten articles from across Australia were accepted for publication, along with five book reviews, a Guest Editorial and an Invited Commentary by our esteemed colleague Prof Mei Krishnasamy, Chair of Cancer Nursing at the University of Melbourne.
We are pleased with the outcome. With improvements in survival rates for many cancers, the social and health inequalities that continue to impact on the cancer outcomes of individuals and communities is becoming more significant. Socio-economic, cultural and systemic factors that may influence these outcomes along with psychosocial and interpersonal experiences of those affected by cancer are the domain of social work practice. We wanted to bring together a collection of papers that reflect current knowledge, research, practice and education initiatives in the cancer field, with a focus on the ‘social’ aspects for all those affected by cancer; patients, caregivers, families, communities and health systems.
In pre-COVID years leading international social work authors have been invited to Australia as part of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) conferences. Such luminaries have included Matthew Loscalzo, Jim Zabora, Brad Zebrack and Carolyn Messner. Oncology Social Work Australia and New Zealand (OSWANZ) also had a tradition of holding an annual conference, usually with an esteemed international social work researcher invited as a keynote speaker.
However, as the discipline of psycho-oncology gains momentum, there was a perceived need to highlight the work of Australian social workers in oncology that contributes to the conceptualisation and understanding of the impact of the ‘social’ in the emerging biopsychosocial model of comprehensive cancer care, with an emphasis on the unique Australian context. The daily practice of Australian oncology social workers revolves around the marginalised and underserved cohorts of the population who are known to have poorer outcomes from cancer: Indigenous, CALD, rural and remote, those of low socioeconomic status and education and with lower health literacy.
A significant body of published work in the psycho-oncology field has come from practitioners and researchers in the US. One of our research priorities over the last decade has been encouraging and undertaking research in the Australian practice environment which has resulted in a number of publications in this area. Australian Social Work was seen as the most appropriate journal to continue to pursue this objective through the publication of a range of papers that bring together a critical mass of knowledge and scholarship. The social work oncology field has a well-established foundation in academic-practitioner collaborations and the guest editorship of this edition of the journal reflects that foundation as both Dr Pocket and I have experience in academic and practitioner collaborations in the psycho-oncology field.
The end result is an edition of the journal that encompasses a range of contributions from practitioners and social work academics covering a variety of topics. Some contributions focus on cancer care delivery to specific patient groups such as head and neck cancer patients, parents with children who have cancer or the experiences of young people with cancer. Other articles look at the ‘big picture’ in delivering high quality and innovative health care. How does oncology social work practice differ from social work in other health care settings, how should services be co-designed to provide best supportive care to Indigenous people with cancer and their families? These are important considerations for service delivery and for planning cancer services. Emerging themes are also featured, as demonstrated in the article exploring the attitudes of cancer patients to medicinal cannabis use and in the article that explores the lessons to be learned in Australia from our American colleagues in how best to provide training in oncology social work.
Of course, best practice cancer care is a multidisciplinary affair, and oncology social workers have flourished with opportunities to work collaboratively with medical, nursing and other allied health colleagues. We are indebted to the carefully crafted and thoughtful, reflective commentary from Mei Krishnasamy and there is no better way to conclude this piece than by leaving you with some of her words.
“We live in a world increasingly defined by complexity and fragmentation. In the context of cancer, complexity and fragmentation collide to amplify inequity. Inequity of opportunity for cure, for care, for comfort and for capacity to cope. When I think of oncology social workers, I think of them working at the nexus of fragmentation, complexity and inequity, responding to and addressing those challenges that without intervention risk overwhelming people, families or communities. I think of them from time of diagnosis through to survivorship or end of life care, silently, calmly and strongly advocating, attending to and addressing the needs of all people affected by cancer”. Mei Krishnasamy
Australian Social Work, Volume 75, Issue 2, April 2022 (Special) is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.
