International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | An Interview with the Author—Dr. Melba Sheila D’Souza
Name: Dr. Melba Sheila D’Souza
Affiliation: Nursing and Population Health, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8, Canada
Research interests: psychosocial oncology; supportive care; early survivorship; transitions care; digital health
“Culturally Sensitive Approaches in Psychosocial Interventions to Enhance Well-Being of Immigrant Adults Diagnosed with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review”
by Melba Sheila D’Souza*, Juanita-Dawne Bacsu, Arsh Sharma and Ashwin Nairy
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(3), 335; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22030335
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/3/335
The following is a short interview with Dr. Melba Sheila D’Souza:
1. Congratulations on your published paper. Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself and your current research topic to our readers?
I’m Melba D’Souza and I'm an educator, researcher, and practitioner known for my ability to drive change through collaborative research in British Columbia. My main research is focused on research informing practice and bridging gaps that we have in academia and practice environments. My work prioritizes equipping nursing students with evidence-based, compassionate decision-making skills for multidisciplinary care environments. I’m recognized for advancing value-based, trauma-informed practices that foster inclusivity, justice, and cultural competency, particularly in supportive care, early survivorship, and culturally sensitive education.
In 2022, I established the cancer navigation and reported outcomes project specifically for people diagnosed with breast cancer in rural communities in British Columbia, Canada. This project utilizes digital health innovations and culturally sensitive approaches as part of psychosocial interventions, specifically for immigrant and refugee adults who are diagnosed with breast cancer—which is not well-researched. The goal of a culturally sensitive approach is to address these core vulnerabilities for up to a year, offering professional navigation and survivorship care.
Our recent study in this paper focuses on adults about 18 years old and newly diagnosed with breast cancer, where there is very little research on culturally sensitive approaches. Our research addresses a gap in healthcare research and policies by examining culturally sensitive approaches to psychosocial, emotional, and mental health interventions for immigrant adults diagnosed with breast cancer. The main aim of the authors was to provide valuable insights into the development and evaluation of culturally supportive and survivorship models of care, especially in terms of working through health inequalities and barriers of care in rural and remote communities and the impact of cultural stigma and the fear due to deferring access and availability of resources in rural communities. This project synthesizes and mobilizes knowledge to support risk reduction for cancer and the recurrence of cancer. It also looks at the care with the quality of life for people with cancer, as well as health promotion and the prevention of cancer and psychosocial support for the well-being of the person, the caregiver, and healthcare providers.
Our main purpose of the systematic review was to more intensively examine culturally sensitive approaches in psychosocial interventions to narrow the gaps that exist in our priorities, and co-creating priorities that are better in implementation science and open science to advance cancer supportive care and early survivorship in Canada.
2. Was there a specific experience or event in your research career that led you to focus on your current field of research?
I have published in several high-impact journals on implementation science and interdisciplinary healthcare journals on cancer survivorship and psychosocial well-being. I was recently awarded a Canadian Institute of Health Research grant, a Social Science Humanities Research grant, and a Breast Cancer Canada grant. I think that is one of the leading breakthroughs when you look at digital health innovations in psychosocial oncology and transitions in care and co-creating a community-based supportive and survivorship model of care through the lens of an integrated community navigation network in rural and remote communities in British Columbia. This has led me to look at what are the contextual psychosocial issues that are faced by Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, and senior people living in these rural and remote areas. There are barriers that immigrant and refugee people face when they access care, and some of them could be related to cross-cultural communication, language barriers, limited health literacy, and the cultural stigma and fear surrounding cancer and the growing evidence of mental health diagnosis with emerging health issues, and people struggle when they navigate the complex healthcare system, leading to gaps in receiving timely and adequate professional psychosocial supports. That has led me to look at the emphasis we could place on creating and evaluating more effective approaches in psychosocial oncology care, incorporating culturally relevant practices, such as language support groups, and culturally specific coping strategies, such as socio-cultural and traditional practices, which have shown promise in improving emotional well-being, mental health and reducing isolation and fear of the unknown. Interdisciplinary approaches that combine counseling, mentorship, and navigation services through integrated supportive and survivorship models of care are emerging as effective strategies to address the multifaceted needs of immigrants in rural communities. One is in addressing the needs of immigrant and refugee people who are dealing with cancer, and the second is with digital health innovations for people who are hesitant to speak or to ask for help due to reduced access, stigma, embarrassment, and the logistic challenges they face with deciding treatment options that are best for them in the communities that they live and thrive in.
3. Could you describe the difficulties and breakthrough innovations encountered in your current research?
I think some of the struggles that we face in our current research is that when we look at studies that address the psychosocial well-being of immigrant adults, very few studies talk about the angle of social justice, access, equity, diversity, or inclusiveness of creating a living library of people's voices in what their preferences and needs are and what they identify as priorities in their new diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and transitions in care.
The second thing I think we face when we look at the breakthrough is looking at very specific barriers, such as the financial impact, economic burden, the language that they speak, and also the professional mentors, tailored education, and peer support groups that they have, especially for those living in very rural and remote communities and the immigrants and refugees who come through here.
Associated with that, with the caregiver, the care partner, or the care provider—or even their children and family members—there are a lot of changes that are faced through this. One of the breakthroughs that I think is important to see is cancer-supportive care and early survivorship models of care in Canada, and the effectiveness and the efficacy of that, whatever the phase, the diagnosis, or the pathological reports that they have. One of the models of care was looking at integrated community support and survivorship, models of care that can incorporate different multidisciplinary team members through an integrated community navigation network to look at different approaches in very specific supportive counseling, psychosocial support, and distress management for strengthening emotional, social, and practical aspects of life.
4. Does technological progress provide new opportunities for the topic you are researching? Does it bring any potential risks? How do you think these factors will affect future research trends on this topic?
Digital health and technological innovations have had a very big impact on the lives of people and progressive society today. It creates that significant contribution to empowering lives and thus leads to speaking up for a better quality of life. I think one thing for advancing science and research, and for me, through digital innovations, is knowledge translation in action, and I think it's about that growing body of contextual evidence-informed knowledge and practice in nursing and keeping pace with that, with the current trends and advancements in oncology nursing practice. So, for example, as I said, I lead in the cancer navigation and reported outcomes project, and with digital health innovations, it's sometimes making that continuous effort to contribute to enhancing psychosocial oncology and cancer-supportive care in early diagnosis and survivorship and transitions in care, with the focus on underserved and underrepresented populations that play a key role, especially here, when you look at newer models of care, which will happen with the quantum leap of artificial intelligence-assisted cancer care in a smart technology-driven virtual platform in the post-COVID-19 era.
When you look at digital health innovations, it helps planners, decision-makers, and policymakers also look at creating that digital literacy environment of cancer-supportive care and early survivorship; it informs praxis, open education, open access, open tech, synthesizing the research aspects into beneficiary, revolutionary, future innovations and creating that technology that can close the gap between education and practice and advance research applications to be able to translate its impetus to the people in action.
5. What appealed to you about the IJERPH journal that made you want to submit your paper? In your opinion, what can authors expect when they submit to IJERPH?
Publishing in IJERPH aligned with our article’s focus on sociocultural, environmental, and psychosocial aspects of the experiences of breast cancer in immigrant populations. I think the one important aspect to know is the context of our systematic review to inform education and practice through environmental research and public health. Choosing this journal because it has an expedited review and publication process and a model of open access, which truly speaks to wider accessibility for authors and scholars in this work. It covers a wide range of relevant topics related to our work, whether it be equity, diversity, inclusiveness, social justice in cancer care, social determinants of health, culture, and environment, and the emphasis on preventive and promotion models of care, which we should talk about in cancer care, cancer control, and quality surveillance, and this aligns very well with the interdisciplinary team members who worked on this project.
Another reason is that there was no restriction on the length of the paper, which allowed us to provide very comprehensive detail on conducting the systematic review, methodologies, tools, critical appraisals, data transformation, and the quality of the review.
We decided to publish here also because of the rapid dissemination and mobilization of knowledge, which we need in this fast-paced oncology field because there is growing innovation and groundbreaking research. IJERPH took multiple rigorous peer reviews, very few weeks to be able to publish it, and very professional conduct throughout the process, and I was very impressed with the genuine efforts of the editorial and review team members.
So, looking at my experience and the process here, it's very positive and has paved the way forward for the implementation of science and research. I think there was a robust, academic, and rigorous scientific process. The critical reviews we received were very objective and subject-oriented to the scientific methodologies and approaches. It was helpful, the journal and the authors went back and forth for revisions, and I appreciated the commitment they had to pushing us to produce the most critically thoughtful and analytical manuscript possible.
This exceptional interview is a very good example of sustaining in publishing; here, I would say I plan to make submissions to the MDPI database and the journals in the future because of the positive experiences we have had thus far.