Utilization of sexual health and pelvic floor physiotherapy services in Vancouver’s Prostate Cancer Supportive Care (PCSC) Program.

Abstract

163 Background: The Vancouver Prostate Centre established PCSC in January 2013 to provide education and clinical services to men with prostate cancer (pts) and their partners. The program includes a dedicated sexual health (SH) clinician and physiotherapist (PT) with expertise in male pelvic floor anatomy and physiology. Educational and clinical services are available to pts without charge. We examined the use of the SH and PT services in PCSC to better understand how the services are utilized. Methods: Pts who are pre-treatment or within 6 months of surgery or radiation are offered a group educational (ED) session regarding sexual rehabilitation with the option of visits to the SH clinic. Those who were > 6 months from surgery or radiation were offered evaluation in the SH clinic. Pts who are about to undergo surgery or who have postoperative incontinence are offered attendance at a group ED session and/or 3 visits with the PT clinician. We gathered data from PCSC logs, clinic schedules, and patient records to assess utilization of SH and PT services. Results: SH and PT ED sessions and clinics (CLIN) were initiated in July and October 2013 respectively. Of 802 pts oriented to PCSC, 400 pts, median age 64 (42-92), participated in the SH module and 229, median age 66 (range 42-88) in the PT module. 90% of patients in each module had been treated with surgery; 10% were on ADT. Details of utilization of the ED and CLIN components by pts for both modules are shown in the table below. There was a total of 781 SH clinic visits: 141 pts had one visit, the remainder had a median of 3 visits (range 2-8). For PT, there were 334 visits, with a median of 2 (range 1-4) per pt. 37% of pts who were seen by SH were also seen by PT and 65% of those seen in PT were seen in SH. Conclusions: Sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence can be significant problems, and often occur together. The PCSC Program offers both educational and clinical services to address these issues, and continues to modify its programs to best serve patient and partner needs at various time points after therapy. [Table: see text]