Cancer is regarded as a life threatening disease not only involved in physical distress but generates adverse and stressful experiences to patients. The prevalence rate of psychological distress in lung cancer patients is as high as 43.4%. Enhanced Psychosocial Care (EPC) services was launched throughout 7 clusters of Hospital Authority in 2020 to enhance the psychosocial support to cancer patients. Resilience, thought to be modifiable, is important for promoting successful illness adaptation. In the context of cancer, resilience refers to a patient's global orientation of confidence in coping stress (GOCCS), social support, personal protective attributes etc. The aims of this study in Kowloon West Cluster (KWC) are to (1) assess the change of GOCCS from our strength oriented psychosocial intervention; (2) explore patient satisfaction to service and (3) inform future strategies in developing a good psychosocial intervention for lung cancer patients. Methodology This is a one arm pre-post study (n=61). Participants were invited to fill in Orientation to Life Questionnaire-13 (OLQ-13) before and after intervention, and a customized questionnaire concerning their satisfaction towards the EPC program. Result Statistically significant improvement from baseline to after intervention in GOCCS (mean difference= -4.7; p < .000). Participants revealed high satisfaction (23.3/25) to the EPC program in KWC provided by MSW. Study also indicates that nearly half (46%) of participants suffered from moderate to high levels of psychological distress (≥6/10) followed by multiple psychosocial concerns/distress before receiving EPC. Worry (72.1%), sadness (54.1%), feeling depressed (37.7%), finance (55.1%), working (27.9%), treatment decision (23%) are the top psychosocial concerns. Data also showed that psychological distress is associated with the level of GOCCS of advanced lung cancer patients while the existence of some sociodemographic characteristics of patients like separation with spouse, employment and financial concerns, and negative mood correlate with patients who may have lower GOCCS level and more psychological distress. Conclusion This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of psychosocial intervention by MSWs to enhance resilience of advanced lung cancer patients in the Hong Kong Chinese context. The pilot demonstrates this systemic intervention to advanced cancer patients leading them with more resilience in adjusting the illness and persuade further randomized controlled trials expanding to more cancer groups.
