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Key implications for practice include;
1. The need for routine emotional health screening, neurocognitive assessment and
psychosocial support. Ministry of Health funding currently enables this,
however continued access to this resource needs to be guaranteed in the future.
2. Continue to develop and strengthen the multidisciplinary model of care for
survivors of childhood cancer incorporating medical surveillance, psychosocial
support and health education based on individual risk-related health outcomes.
3. Develop strategies to ensure that the follow-up care continues to engage young
survivors by maintaining relevance to their changing needs and based on
individual needs rather than age cut-offs. This will ensure they remain supported
until an appropriate time for transition to confident self-care and skill in
engaging with adult healthcare services.
5.5 Implications for Future Research
Based on the results of this study, there are several recommendations for future
research. First some of the limitations outlined in this study may be minimized by
increasing the sample size to improve the statistical power. As childhood cancer only
makes up 1% of all cancers in New Zealand, this will always be a small population to
survey. However by making the survey tool more accessible, response rates would be
higher and provide greater statistical power. Second the survey could be repeated in
several years time, much in the same method as the Youth2000 and Youth’07 studies to
capture changing trends and more accurately reflect the experiences of survivors
exposed to different treatment modalities and health outcomes. Third, it would be
interesting to repeat this study with older adolescent and young adult survivors aged
greater than 18years, when the issues of negotiating work, family, relationships and the
potential for increased health concerns may produce very different findings. Fourth, the
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