This PhD was part funded through the Knowledge and Economy Skills Scholarship 2 Programme which you can find out more about here
Study
This study aimed to develop a set of key questions to ask when trying to understand whether the services offered by Tenovus Cancer Care have an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of people affected by cancer. It also aimed to develop a user-friendly software to allow Tenovus Cancer Care to be able to get real-time answers about this impact.
Results
The final product the student developed is called T:POT which is the Tenovus: Psychosocial Outcomes Toolkit. This means that Tenovus Cancer Care have a core set of questions they can ask people with a cancer diagnosis when trying to understand whether their services have impacted their mental health and wellbeing. They will also be able to do this using a user-friendly and quick piece of software on their computers. People affected by cancer will be able to answer some questions and Tenovus Cancer Care will be able to see the results immediately, therefore knowing whether their services are making a difference. The product that was developed still needs some final tweaks to make sure it works perfectly for Tenovus Cancer Care.
Impact
By having this tool, Tenovus Cancer Care will be able to better understand the value of their services and highlight where there might be a need for further support. This allows Tenovus Cancer Care to understand if a service is working as it was intended to, to support those affected by cancer and ensuring they are getting the best support possible.
Next Steps
The next step for this research is to test it out on a bigger proportion of service users. By asking more people affected by cancer to answer the core questions, the more effective the tool will be in helping to understand the impact of the services provided by Tenovus Cancer Care.