TYAC Annual Meeting—13th June 2006
What is Age Appropriate Care?
TYAC's second annual meeting was held on 13th June 2006 at the New Hunts House Lecture Theatre on the Guy’s Campus of Kings College London. The event was attended by 82 delegates from a wide variety of professional backgrounds.
Entitled ‘What is Age Appropriate Care?’ the day focussed on the effect of care setting on the young adult with cancer.
The morning session explored issues around care environments for young people. The day began with introductory sessions from Dr Jeremy Whelan. the Chair of TYAC and the first presentation was given by Dr Anne Grinyer, a Senior Lecturer in Health Research at Lancaster University. Dr Grinyer presented the findings of her recent research into what it is like to be a young adult with cancer; the challenges specifically related to age and lifestyle and the implications for policy and practice.
This was followed by a talk from Sue Morgan (Lead Macmillan Specialist Nurse for TYA at St James’s University Hospital) who presented findings from a survey carried out in Leeds to investigate the opinions of teenage and young adult cancer patients with regards to their care setting. Kelly Denver—a former cancer patient and graduate of University College London gave a presentation based on her dissertation, entitled ‘Health gains and the environment—a psycho geographic perspective’. This talk focussed on the emotional and experiential impact of hospital affected by all elements of ‘place’.
This year, members of TYAC were invited to submit items for presentation: these could have been surrounding interesting case studies, audits or research which would form an interesting basis for discussion amongst the multi-disciplinary audience. TYAC received an encouraging number of submissions and the following items were discussed:
Enhancing awareness: developing embedded versus bespoke units for TYAC (Professor David Walker, University of Nottingham
Ovarian tissue cryopreservation for young girls and women with cancer (Dr Catriona McKeating, St James University Hospital)
Whose death is it anyway? (UCH Young People’s Cancer Team)
The afternoon session commenced with an exploration of the differences between paediatric and adult based treatment regimes of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. Professor Michele Sanders (UCH, London) and Dr Bernadette Brennan (Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital) presented the Clinical Oncologist’s and Paediatric Oncologist’s perspectives. The presentations were followed by an interesting discussion.
The final session for the day was lead by Dr Ian Lewis (St James’s University Hospital) and Sam Smith (Lead Nurse Adolescent Oncology, Young Oncology Unit, Christie Hospital) who invited delegates to take part in a workshop to identify key competencies for professionals involved in the care of young people with cancer.
TYAC would like to thank TCT and CLIC Sargent for supporting this event. Our thanks also go to all those who presented on the day.
Presentations from each of the day’s speakers are available to download here .
What the Delegates Thought
- “Very interesting and thought provoking research studies”
- “A good all round meeting”
- “Very good day and networking”
