The Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Team is made up of different health care professionals including Nurses, Doctors, Social Workers, Community Workers and Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinators. The TYA service support all young people aged 13-24 diagnosed with cancer in the East Midlands.
The aim of the TYA Service is to see the young person first and the cancer diagnosis second. Together they support young people to maintain normality through a difficult time. The East Midlands Principal Treatment Centre (PTC) is based across 3 Teenage Cancer Trust Units in Nottingham & Leicester. These units provide an inpatient and outpatient facility.
The TYA team will be supporting you alongside your medical and nursing team to ensure that you receive the best possible care before, during and after your cancer treatment. You will also be allocated a key worker, usually the TYA Clinical Nurse Specialist who will work alongside your treating team.
As well as the Principal Treatment Centre, there are 4 Designated Hospitals throughout the region, who provide support to young people with cancer. If you are 19-24 you have a choice about where you can receive your care. This decision may be a hard one to make on top of all the new information about your cancer. Your TYA team can support you in this, they can provide you with all of the relevant information to make the decision.
How do the TYA Service find out about my diagnosis?
In line with national, Department of Health guidance, cancer care is guided by multidisciplinary teams who are experts in a certain type of cancer. This is to ensure quality care and best practice.
Your diagnosis and treatment options will be discussed at an appropriate multidisciplinary meeting to ensure that you get the correct and most up-to-date treatment for your diagnosis.
All newly diagnosed patients between 13-24 years of age are discussed at the regional Teenage and Young Adult Multidisciplinary meeting by specialists working in age appropriate care.
What happens now?
Once your Nurse Specialist or Consultant has alerted the TYA team about your diagnosis, your case will be discussed at the next Teenage and Young Adult Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meeting. This meeting takes place every Friday.
The TYA Service will offer support to you wherever you are and you will be contacted by a member of the team.
We encourage patients and families to meet health professionals at a time that fits in with school/college, work and family life as much as possible. It can be difficult to predict how long treatment may last but you can access the team at any point during and after your treatment.
You will be able to access social, educational, psychological and residential activities and support that are provided by the service. We use social media and the website to advertise these activities and any other opportunities, such as free tickets for concerts and sporting events that are donated by various charitable sources. The TYA team will also make referrals for you to other charities who support with things like hair loss, fertility and wish / grant giving organisations.
Our Clinical Nurse Specialists and CLIC Sargent teams also have ability to help with a wide range of other issues, including referring into services to help people struggling with finances / housing - Don't hesitate to talk to them if you have any concerns.
