People with cancer look to rehabilitation services for strategies to cope with impairments resulting from the disease and its treatments, including changes in physical and cognitive abilities, independence and activities of daily living, and physical activity participation level. As survival rates improve, cancer rehabilitation will increasingly play a critical role in optimizing health and quality of life for survivors. Ontario continues to lack a coordinated cancer rehabilitation system despite being a strategic area of focus in Ontario Cancer Plan (OCP) IV. For those services that are available (either inpatient or outpatient), services vary widely in terms of availability, expertise, and patient access. Therefore, there are continued effort to explore and identify opportunities to improve the delivery of rehabilitation services for cancer patients.

The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive cancer rehabilitation services similar to that of other Canadian Centres such as Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto) or Tom Baker Cancer Centre (Calgary). These centres offer outpatient rehabilitation designed to maintain and/or improve the functional status of adult cancer patients

COLLABORATORS

Windsor Regional Hospital

• Sarah Mushtaq
• Priyanka Philips
• Nicole Sbrocca

CBI Health Group

• Adrian Huang

University of Alberta

• Alexander Grant