The Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Health and Wellness
Hematologic (blood cancer) patients have required specialized attention and continued care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the nature of their disease. Some of the challenges experienced by this population have included difficulties in accessing treatments, lack of consistent follow-up care or management, increased isolation and mental health impacts, and reduced availability of support services. With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic not yet in sight, it is important to understand the impacts to healthcare, physical consequences, and psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for this patient and caregiver population.
To gather insight on the Canadian experience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Lymphoma Canada developed two experience surveys that were administered to the Canadian patient and caregiver lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) community.
The lymphoma patient and caregiver responses to these surveys have provided valuable insight in the following areas:
- impacts to clinical care and practice,
- psychosocial impacts, and
- the programs and services patients and caregivers require.
The responses received from these surveys illuminate the lymphoma experience throughout the pandemic, highlighting the needs and challenges of this community in order to develop appropriate programming and services and advocate for change on a national frontier.
We could not have accomplished this report without your participation. We thank you for sharing your experiences, which have helped us to identify the issues today and bring change as we move forward into the future.
