Two diagnoses-double trouble? Exploring care trajectories, strategies and encounters between individuals with serious mental illness and cancer comorbidity, their relatives, and health and social care professionals (Swedish context)

Background: Individuals with severe mental illness and cancer comorbidity (SMI/C) often face delayed diagnoses, less aggressive treatments, and higher cancer-related mortality. Care gaps created by deinstitutionalization lead to difficulties navigating the somatic/psychiatric healthcare systems, with relatives often serving as key coordinators.
Overall aim: To explore how individuals with SMI/C, their relatives and professionals experience, navigate and co-create the cancer treatment course and everyday life.
Methods: The project is a PhD project, conducted in a Swedish context. Initial 4-6 focus group interviews with professionals followed by a 18-24 months multi-sited ethnographic field study including interviews and observations. Individuals with SMI/C are recruited from psychiatric and somatic care, and the study follows the patient's care trajectory. Relatives and professionals will be included based on patient choice.
Expected results: The study will identify health and care needs of individuals with SMI/C, families, and professionals, and highlight facilitators and barriers in accessing the current healthcare system. The study explores care trajectories in both daily life and treatment settings, with potential outcomes that can improve quality of life, life expectancy, and recovery practices. It also seeks to identify strengths and weaknesses in healthcare professionals and systems, guiding interventions and education to improve care and workforce competence.

A Danish parallel PhD study will be conducted