ICONIC

Improving COmmuNication & support for people with
brain Cancer & their families

What is this study about?

People diagnosed with brain cancer and their families face many challenges. One of those many challenges is finding their way through complex treatment conversations and getting the support needed from health professionals when they experience changes to their cognitive capacity. This study is looking into ways health professionals can tailor and improve their communication for people with brain cancer and their families.

What are we doing?

We have done a review and looked at health communication guidelines from other health areas to help us build some key principles for communicating with people with changed cognitive capacity.

Using these key principles, we will work with health professionals to develop a new training resource aimed at improving health professional communication and support for people with brain cancer and their families.  The content and format will be developed through feedback, discussion and consultation with people working in the area and those with lived experience.

Later, we will test the new training resource in a pilot study to ensure it is easy to access, relevant and useful for health professionals.

What do we expect to find?

We will better understand the important elements of health communication for people diagnosed with brain cancer and their families. These key elements will be part of a new training resource for health professionals designed to build their communication skills and ability to tailor communication for people with changed cognition.

We will learn about the best way to implement this type of training resource so that it is accessible, and we expect that health professionals will feel more confident in their communication with people diagnosed with brain cancer and their families.

What are our next steps?

Shortly, we will be looking for interested healthcare professionals from medical, nursing or allied health who have worked with, or are currently working with people diagnosed with brain cancer to participate in 2 online focus group discussions early 2025. 

For more information about this study

For more information please contact: dianne.legge@prostgrad.cutin.edu.au