Research summary
People with cancer and their caregivers need support to manage the complex physical and psychosocial challenges caused by this disease and its treatment. This support is called self-management. However, patients and caregivers—especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds—often lack access to the services they need. Without these supports, they often revert to ineffective trial-and-error in managing cancer challenges.
As Canada Research Chair in Illness Self-Management Support Interventions for Patients and Their Family Caregivers, Dr. Sylvie Lambert is determining which self-management interventions work for which patients and their caregivers. She and her research team are also identifying how these interventions can be sustained in real-world settings. Using digital health, mixed methods and innovative designs, their aim is to develop, evaluate and implement self-management interventions that better support culturally and linguistically diverse patients and their caregivers.