Background/rationale
The Mental Health Hub project for young women with cancer is a vital initiative designed to address the unique and often overlooked psychological challenges faced by this group. Unlike their older counterparts, young women diagnosed with cancer are navigating formative life stages—education, careers, relationships, fertility, and identity—while managing the intense mental and emotional toll of a life-threatening illness. Prior to this project, there was a significant gap in age-appropriate, relevant, and accessible mental health resources tailored to the needs of young women with cancer in Australia.
Methods
To ensure the Hub truly reflected the experiences and needs of its users, we began by surveying our community. Hundreds of young women participated, sharing their insights, struggles, and the key unmet needs during treatment and survivorship. Their voices highlighted urgent mental health needs including fear of recurrence, early menopause, fertility loss, relationship strain, body image, and identity. These findings were analysed by our dedicated research team and helped shape the structure and content of the Hub. We then established a professional steering group (including neurologists, oncopsychologist, psychologists, and mental health practitioners) and a patient committee (of young women with lived experience). These committees worked in partnership to co-design the hub’s content, tone, and accessibility, ensuring the result was evidence-based and authentically representative.
Impact on Practice
The Mental Health Hub is a powerful example of how lived experience, research, and professional guidance can come together to create a meaningful, life-changing resource. It is more than just a website, it is a safe place for young women to feel seen, supported, and strengthened. Users are encouraged to submit new content and lived-experience, further closing gaps.
Discussion
Bringing multiple users and cancer types together to acknowledge shared experience in this specific demographic highlighted the urgent and unmet patient mental health needs.