What do cancer support groups provide which other supportive relationships do not? The experience of peer support groups for people with cancer
Section snippets
Participants
Nine cancer groups based in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, participated in the interviews and participant observation, which was part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of support groups. A range of groups was chosen, varying in location (4 rural, 5 urban), setting (3 hospital, 6 community), specificity (5 general cancers, 4 cancer-specific), facilitator qualification (5 health professional, 4 non-health professional), and facilitator experience with cancer (3 with, 7 without).
Results
The results will be reported under two broad categories linked to the research questions: Firstly, the positioning of support group experience in contrast to support outside the group, within which the strongest overarching themes to emerge were ‘community versus isolation’; ‘acceptance versus rejection’; ‘information versus lack of knowledge’; and ‘challenging versus normalising’. Secondly, self-perceived consequences of attending a cancer support group in relation to coping and identity
Discussion
This study examined the question of what cancer support groups provide that other supportive relationships do not, and what the self perceived consequences are of support group attendance. Support groups were positioned as providing a unique sense of community, unconditional acceptance, and information, in contrast to isolation, rejection, and lack of knowledge experienced outside the group. At the same time, the support group was positioned as facilitating positive relationships with family
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by a grant from The Cancer Council New South Wales. Full ethics approval was granted by the University of Western Sydney, The University of Sydney, and nine area health authorities from which participants were recruited. Thanks are offered to Janette Perz, and to Gerard Wain, Kim Hobbs, Annie Stenlake, and Katharine Smith, the other members of research team, who made comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
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