Patient Support Strategies
Different supportive care strategies can help patients to cope with illness and stress due to health impairment.1
Patient Education1
Patient Education1
- Provide patients with NHL or their caregivers with detailed information about the disease, diagnosis, and treatment options to help them make informed decisions. Educate them on the strategies to cope with emotional stress and daily functioning due to illness and health impairment. Prepare the patient about what to expect with the treatment and how to cope with side effects. Tailor information according to the patient’s needs to reduce anxiety and improve satisfaction. Ensuring appropriate information concerning treatment cost and health insurance coverage can prevent stress due to financial burden.
Emotional/Mental Health1
- Learning about an NHL diagnosis can be stressful for a patient, which impacts them psychologically. Good communication with the patient and family creates a trusting relationship that positively affects several aspects of the cancer care journey.
- Assess patients’ individual needs to provide advice on coping with work/education and encourage them to participate in support groups to discuss emotional and functional issues.
- Provide information about health counselors to discuss sexual function and fertility issues.
- Additionally, guiding patients to online resources (websites, podcasts, support groups, and videos) can help them learn more about coping strategies.
Palliative Care2
- Palliative care providers work with multidisciplinary team members, including physicians, nurses, mental health specialists, social workers, chaplains, pharmacists, and dietitians. Palliative care may be appropriate for patients with refractory pain, prominent pain symptoms, or psychological distress.
- Provide resources to the patient and caregiver about health insurance coverage and eligibility to receive palliative care.
Complementary Methods3
- Complementary and integrative methods are practices that are not part of standard medical care but may help people with cancer to better manage cancer-related symptoms and treatment-related side effects. Integrative medicine is the combined use of standard medical treatments and certain complementary methods.
- Integrating complementary therapies into conventional treatment plans can help better address the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients.
The use of complementary treatments may improve well-being and quality of life; some examples of these are listed below.3
Meditation
Nutrition
Physical Activity
Acupuncture
Yoga
Guided Imagery
Reflexology
Massage
References:
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Diagnosis and Management. Patient information needs. National Library of Medicine. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK385269/).
- American Cancer Society. Palliative Care. Last revised August 15, 2025. (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/palliative-care/who-provides-palliative-care.html).
- American Cancer Society. Understanding Integrative (Holistic) Medicine. Last revised July 11, 2025. (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/complementary-and-integrative-medicine/complementary-and-alternative-methods-and-cancer/what-are-complementary-and-integrative-methods.html).
ALL URLs accessed April 27, 2026
