Consider the patient's mental as well as physical well-being

• Sorting out the cause Emotions run high during certain medical and cancer treatments, and depression, anxiety, and other psychological issues are all too common. In fact, emotional or psychological issues can often lead to physical symptoms and complicate treatment. When a patient is in pain or having other symptoms, it can be difficult to sort out the cause.
"There's a whole level of suffering that's really not physical at all," says Keyssar. For example, she says, anxiety often plays a big role in both triggering and increasing pain. "Sometimes you have to treat the anxiety in order to fully treat the pain," she explains.
• Dealing with difficult issues Communicating with a patient's doctor about psychological topics can be a very sensitive area, so Francis recommends talking to the person in your care openly before you contact the doctor. Explain that you can see that anxiety or depression is becoming a serious issue, and that you need the doctor's help to figure out what to do. "Often a patient will respond well if you say, 'I'm asking you to do this to help me,'" she says. "You can say, 'I'm trying to take care of you, but I can't handle this on my own.'"
If that doesn't work, Francis says, the next step is a tough-love approach: "I know you don't want me to talk to the doctor about this, but I have to because it's a serious problem. I need you to accept this so I can care for you."