The New Generation of Cancer Patients 
Won’t Stay Silent About Mental Health 

 

 

Why psycho-oncology must urgently move from evidence to everyday care — and how we start that change. 

Over the past twenty years, Australians have undergone a profound shift in how we think about mental health. 

Anxiety and depression are no longer automatically hidden behind closed doors. Many younger and middle-aged adults have grown up in a culture that values openness, vulnerability, and professional help-seeking. We talk about mental health at work, at home, and online — and we expect our health systems to do the same.

But cancer care hasn’t caught up. 

 

The New Face of Cancer — and the Psychological Gap 

Cancer diagnoses in younger adults are rising. That means more people in their 30s and 40s are facing the shock of a diagnosis while raising families, building careers, and navigating financial pressures. 

They are part of a digitally connected, psychologically literate generation — one that’s comfortable talking about anxiety, seeking help, and using online tools or peer support.

They expect more than medical treatment. They expect psychological care as a regular part of their cancer journey. 

Yet even in 2025, most cancer patients in Australia still don’t receive structured psychological support as part of their routine care. It’s not because clinicians don’t care — it’s because our systems still treat emotional wellbeing as an optional extra, rather than the essential foundation of good cancer care. 

 

A System Still Lagging Behind Expectation

While public awareness of mental health has surged — and funding for mental-health services has expanded — the integration of psychological care into oncology remains patchy.

We’ve seen enormous social progress in reducing stigma, growing self-help tools, and encouraging people to seek early support. But in cancer care, the old silos persist: medical treatment is prioritised; psychological distress is often left unaddressed. 

For a generation that expects holistic care, the disconnect is glaring. 

This group faces unique stressors: juggling young families, careers, mortgages, and identity — all suddenly disrupted by a life-changing diagnosis. They are more likely than older patients to recognise distress, articulate their need for support, and question a system that doesn’t provide it. 

For them, psychological care isn’t about ‘treating mental illness.’ It’s about managing fear, identity shifts, uncertainty, and survivorship — the human side of cancer that doesn’t end when treatment does. 

 

Building the Bridge Between Evidence and Everyday Care

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel — but we do need to start using it. 

Decades of research have already shown that low-intensity psychological interventions — short, structured, cost-effective, evidence-based approaches — can be delivered successfully within busy oncology settings. 

What’s missing isn’t the evidence. It’s implementation. 

The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer — developed by cancer leaders Professor Suzanne Chambers AO and Professor Jeff Dunn AO — is a practical, step-by-step way to make that happen. 

It translates 20 years of psycho-oncology research into clear guidance and ready-to-use materials that nurses, oncologists, GPs, and allied-health professionals can apply in real clinical interactions, building confidence to provide brief psychological interventions and distress screening as part of everyday practice. 

And it’s highly cost-effective. For a one-off investment of around $200 per health professional, an oncology service can equip staff to deliver low-intensity psychological care to thousands of patients each year. 

Compared with the ongoing salary costs of employing additional specialist mental-health staff — often hundreds of thousands of dollars annually — the value is obvious. Equipping existing staff with the Guide is a practical, scalable, and sustainable approach to meeting patient psychological needs within existing resources. 

Widely endorsed by cancer leaders and consistently praised by nurses and clinicians in practice, the Guide is yet to be adopted at scale within any health service. That’s the gap.

The Guide is not the whole solution, but it is the vital first step toward embedding structured psychological care into routine cancer treatment. It gives oncology teams a shared framework and common language for addressing distress — and it’s ready to scale right now. 

Because the question is no longer whether we should provide psychological care — it’s how soon we start doing it everywhere. 

 

A Turning Point for Cancer Care

We are at a crossroads. 

Cancer’s new generation expects mental-health support as a right, not a luxury. Our health systems must now catch up — by investing in training, embedding psychological care in service standards, and supporting clinicians to deliver it confidently. 

Because treating the cancer is only half the story. 

Healing the person takes more.

Stephen May
Publisher, The Health Professionals Guide to Delivering Psychological Carefor Adults with Cancer
Australian Academic Press