Bright IDEAS - Young Adults Problem-Solving Skills Training

Bright IDEAS-Young Adults: Problem-Solving Skills Training to Reduce Distress Among Young Adults With Cancer

The purpose of this project is to evaluate efficacy of Bright IDEAS, an evidence-based problem-solving skills training (PSST) program, as a supportive care intervention for young adult (YA) cancer patients compared with enhanced usual psychosocial care with 344 young adult patients newly diagnosed with cancer.

Bright IDEAS-YA is a personalized approach to increase problem-solving ability by fostering positive appraisal of problems as solvable challenges that can be overcome and enhancing rational problem-solving skills to systematically work through any problem. Bright IDEAS-YA intervention consists of six 45-minute one-on-one sessions with a trainer who teaches the participant the Bright IDEAS stepwise approach to problem-solving and guides the participant through solving their own problems using the Bright IDEAS approach.

Up to 344 young adult patients newly diagnosed with cancer will be recruited to participate in this multi-site randomized controlled trial, where the Bright IDEAS-YA intervention will be compared with enhanced usual psychosocial care. Efficacy will be evaluated by examining changes in psychosocial outcomes from baseline to post-intervention (3 months) and follow-up (6, 12 and 24 months). The extent to which changes in aspects of problem-solving ability mediate the intervention effects will be examined.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Current age 18-39
• Within 4 months of first diagnosis of any cancer
• Cancer being treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy and/or hematopoietic stem cell transplant
• No documented or self-reported cognitive delay or impairment that would prevent completion of survey measures
• English-speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• Medical crisis or not receiving curative therapy per physician/treatment team report
• Treatment involves surgery only