From Catherine Swift, LCSW, Care Delivery Strategist

After years spent caring for AYAs at UNC, one of TCA’s hospital partners, I joined TCA early this year. Since then, I’ve been working alongside the team to expand TCA’s reach to community-based hospitals, clinics, and cancer practices, where approximately 70% of AYAs are treated. We’ve learned so much about AYA cancer care in community oncology, and have already started to drive change for young people in these settings. A few takeaways from our expanded work in the community so far:

• – Although most AYAs are treated in the community, creating AYA programs isn’t always feasible in these settings due to limited AYA patient numbers and limited resources.

• – Most community cancer professionals we’ve met were unaware of the unique needs of AYAs and the unique services available to support them.

• – Even in academic cancer settings, many providers and patients don’t realize that AYA care includes people in their 20s and 30s, not just teens, meaning that these young people aren’t getting tailored care.

• – Once we have opportunities to share about this, most providers we’ve met are excited to learn about AYAs and how they can strengthen care for them.

• – To drive this learning and change, we’ve opened a new grant opportunity for community cancer care settings to complete projects that improve the care they offer to young people.

• – We are still just as committed to supporting our academic hospital partners, and have learned that many of them are also seeking ways to expand AYA care to community settings in their networks.

We’re so excited to be moving this work forward, and appreciate all the support from the TCA community that makes it possible. If you have interest, experiences, or questions about AYA care in the community, please get in touch. We’d love to learn from you and share more about our work!