What we do

 

Clinical: 

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer and undergoing treatment will normally result in some degree of psychological distress.  It is entirely normal for patients to be upset, confused, angry and tearful at diagnosis and during treatment.  With the support from family, friends and the medical/nursing teams the majority of people will cope well.  However, it is estimated that about a third of cancer patients will require professional help to overcome disabling psychological symptoms such as anxiety and depression.  It is to this group of patients in particular the Psycho-oncology Service offers an assessment and intervention service. 

 

Education & Training:

 The service provides education & training to hospital staff and staff in the Dublin-Mid Leinster Region in areas such as Communication at End of Life, Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Cancer Patients, Managing Patient’s Distress & Self-care for the Clinician.   We offer specialist post-graduate placements to doctoral psychology trainees from UCD and Trinity College.

 Research:  

 

The scientist-reflective-practitioner model guides the service and as such we continually evaluate the efficacy of our work.  We frequently collaborate in post-graduate research with our partners in the Psychology Departments in UCD and TCD and have recently established a Psycho-oncology Research Forum to develop and guide research in psycho-oncology over the next five years.