Fresh calls for North East cancer patients to have better mental health support
New stats show just 53 percent of trusts across the North East and Yorkshire provide formal aftercare
There are calls for better mental health support for recovering cancer patients in the North East and Teesside.
New figures by breast cancer charity Future Dreams reveals only 53% of NHS Trusts in the North East and Yorkshire offer formal aftercare.
Amanda Proctor is from Maggies, which supports people in Newcastle and Middlesbrough, and she said: "It can be when people finish treatment that they really feel it. They've had that quite high impact from their clinical team throughout treatment and then sometimes you can feel like you've fallen off a cliff after treatment.
"It can be then when you start to think about what you've been through. From a treatment perspective, you might have more time off work. It might be anxiety around scans that you're going to be having in the future, follow-up, so end of treatment can be just as important from a psychological perspective as it is through diagnosis and treatment itself.
"The psychological impact of what you've been through, still the impact of what you're going to be going through with follow-up and scans and things. It could be around ongoing life changes around menopause that people go into after treatment or the treatment side effects that can be long lasting."
Future Dreams said: "Cancer patients across England are facing a postcode lottery in the psychological support available once treatment ends. For many patients, the end of treatment is expected to mark the beginning of recovery. Yet it is often only once hospital appointments become less frequent that the emotional impact of cancer begins to surface.
"Many people find themselves adjusting to life after treatment while coping with anxiety, fear of recurrence, uncertainty about the future and the challenge of rebuilding confidence after a life-changing diagnosis."
The charity says consistent psychological support should be recognised as an essential part of cancer care, rather than something determined by a patient's postcode.