Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source.
All content was reviewed and approved by the EBMT Committee, which held full responsibility for the abstract selections. Background : Treatment with intensive chemotherapy for acute leukemia or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation increases the risk of significant symptom burden and psychological distress in patients and their caregivers. The limited resources in health care and the shift toward outpatient care makes it important to find new ways to strengthen the available support systems.
Peer support is a way of rethinking supportive care with the use of voluntary resources. Therefore, we investigated the feasiblity of a peer support intervention in patients and caregivers. During the intervention ambassadors provided one-on-one individual support by face-to-face meetings, telephone or e-mail contact. Ambassadors attended a preparatory course and were offered supervision during the intervention.
Results : Peer ambassador support was feasible and safe in both patients, caregivers and their ambassadors who reported high satisfaction with the individually adjusted support. Patient and caregivers improved in psychosocial outcomes over time. During the intervention a total number of contacts between patients and ambassadors were , and between caregivers and ambassadors On average, each dyad had Text messages and telephone was the most frequently used contact form during the intervention in both studies.
Conclusions : The peer ambassador support was feasible and has the potential to be a new model of psychosocial supportive care incorporated in the hematology clinical care setting, creating an active partnership between peers. Support and supervision for the ambassador was pivotal to provide high quality peer support and to maintain the safety and mental health of the ambassador.
