A Cancer Services Framework for Victoria (2003) and Victoria’s Cancer Action Plan 2008-2011 (VCAP) have guided the direction of cancer services across Victoria. Supportive Care has been central to VCAP and there has been increasing focus on this area over the past 3 years.

We will report on an evaluation of how the SCCV project, The Supportive Cancer Care Project (SCCV Project) together with the ICS Secretariats across Victoria , assisted Integrated Cancer Services to implement supportive care screening in partnership with the health services within its catchment areas.

The evaluation included data from four sources :
• Data analysis/File Audit
• Interviews with key stakeholders
• Focus Groups
• Survey

Four evidence supported screening pathways were identified:
• Aged based screening pathways –paediatric cancer care and young people with cancer
• Tumour based screening pathways – specialist tumour streams embedded into the work of the MDT
• Cancer specific service based screening – this is based around a specialist cancer service, not specific tumour streams
• General hospital based screening –a pathway for cancer patients receiving treatment in a general hospital where screening is dependent on the skills of individual staff members trained in the use of screening with cancer patients.

Where screening pathways have been created the evaluation identified key success factors which supported their development and promoted effective interdisciplinary supportive care:
• Endorsement and support from the Health Service leadership regarding the implementation of screening and the importance of psychosocial care.
• A culture which recognises the importance of psychosocial care and its centrality in the care of patients and their families
• The embedding of a clear screening pathway which is understood by the multidisciplinary team and is routinely supervised
• Staff have the skills and knowledge required to carry out effective screening.