Easing Psychosocial Burden for Informal Caregivers

Participants will be asked to reflect on their caregiving experience and specifically, when the receipt of a supportive intervention that addresses existential distress would have been most appropriate and well received.

MCP-C is structured as a 7-session (1-hour weekly or biweekly sessions) individual intervention that utilizes a mixture of didactics, discussion and experiential exercises that focus around particular themes related to meaning and cancer caregiving

"The enhancement to usual care in this study involves the inclusion of screening and targeted referral components as suggested by Reynolds et al. \[79\]. Research study assistants conducting the screening and providing feedback and referrals will be trained in the NCCN guidelines for distress management and will discuss the screening results and associated recommendations with the study PI (NCCN) \[63\]. As of November, 2017, ICs of patients seen in the Neurology Service at MSKCC are not consistently screened for distress and offered targeted referrals. Participants randomized to EUC will receive feedback about their level of distress (based on the Distress Thermometer administered at screening) after randomization. Within a week of randomization, and post-baseline, the study RSA will send EUC participants appropriate targeted referrals based on levels of distress and problem areas endorsed."