Nearly 38% of the United States population resides 50 or more miles away from a primary, comprehensive cancer center, creating a fragmented care landscape that imposes an overwhelming response effort on the patient (Shriver et al., 2025). Navigating uncoordinated, colocated local providers introduces chaotic environmental contingencies that actively deplete behavioral momentum, manifesting as severe psychological trauma and "administrative toxicity" (Manz et al., 2026). When distant patients experience acute symptoms, centralized NCI nurse triage lines frequently defer care to local primary care providers, urgent cares, or emergency rooms, citing that the issue is "not directly cancer-related," a practice that heavily drives care fragmentation and administrative toxicity for the individual (Lash et al., 2017; Lash et al., 2022). This systemic fragmentation disrupts the patient's coping repertoire, driving acute distress and escalating the risk of treatment non-adherence (Chino et al., 2026). To resolve this systemic void, this poster details an integrated subspecialty model where a Behavioral Health Consultant utilizes functional behavior protocols, single-target shaping, and precision reinforcement to reduce response effort, rebuild behavioral momentum, and protect patient resilience across the miles.
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Shriver, S. P., & American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. (2025). Travel distance remains a major barrier for patients accessing National Cancer Institute-funded research sites. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 9(1), e142. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2025.x (Advance online publication)
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