There is a substantial prevalence of psychiatric and/or substance use disorders in the general population, as well as in the cancer population. This is especially important because of the opioid epidemic in the recent years, coupled with more patients with cancer living with the disease who also have cancer-related pain that is managed with opioids. There is a gap between the prevalence of these problems and clinicians having tools to help manage them in patients with cancer.

Recovery Model, which is primarily a model used in substance use disorder treatment and mental health treatment, is composed of the following core principles: Person-Centered Care, Empowerment, Holistic Approach, Non-Linear Journey, and Peer Support. It is imperative to explore this model, and see how it can supplement what Supportive Care Medicine already does and what possible insights from it can be applied to Supportive Care Medicine to improve the care of patients with cancer who are struggling with psychiatric and/or substance use disorders. This activity seeks to shed light on the rates of psychiatric and substance use disorder co-morbidity in patients with cancer and discuss how current practice in Supportive Care Medicine appears to have similar goals, but how improvement can arise upon this with the Recovery Model in mind and with these principles.