Evaluating the role of massage therapy on patient caregivers in a comprehensive community cancer center.

Abstract

25 Background: Cancer patients and their families undergo a lot of emotional and psychological turmoil during their cancer journey. Addressing cancer patient caregivers’ quality of life and stress is being recognized as equally important as more cancer patients receive treatment as outpatient and at home placing additional stressors on their home support system. Methods: We evaluated the role of massage therapy on the outcomes of cancer patient caregivers. Patient caregivers were evaluated prior to and after receiving massage therapy with the help of a distress screening tool. We looked at the type of massage they received. Patient caregivers were asked about their pain level, emotional comfort, physical comfort, fatigue level, and given the opportunity to express other comments before and after receiving the massage. Results: Between 08/01/2016 and 05/31/2017, 294 participants received massage therapy at the cancer center. Of these, 265 were patients and 29 were patient caregivers. We evaluated the outcome on patient caregivers. Massages were usually 60 minutes long and consisted of either a Swedish or Deep Tissue massage. Upon review, patient caregivers pain score dropped on average of 2 points. Patient caregivers also noted improvement in their emotional comfort, physical comfort and fatigue level. Most of the caregivers had positive comments regarding the intervention. Conclusions: We recognize that supporting cancer patient caregivers benefits the patients and the healthcare team. We were successfully able to document that by offering massage therapy to patient caregivers improve their pain score, emotional comfort, physical comfort and fatigue level. Successfully implementing this service at the cancer center was welcomed by patients, caregivers and providers and led to positive outcomes. Hopefully, further studies are focused on patient caregivers’ outcomes and their impact.