| Abstract: |
(from the chapter) A cancer diagnosis marks a major transition in a family's life, described by Rolland as an "uninvited guest" that must be accommodated by the couple or family. At every stage of illness, families are faced with challenges that threaten to disrupt the stability of their relationships and their quality of life. These include the rearrangement of roles and responsibilities around patient care, the renegotiation of future plans and shifting of priorities, adjustment to losses in functioning, the management of uncertainty, the fear of recurrence or, in advanced stages of illness, the burden of care, and prospect of death. Researchers and practitioners alike have argued that the psychosocial impact of cancer should be construed in relational terms. Although medically, cancer happens to the individual patient, psychosocially, illness is shared problem. Families affected by cancer function as interdependent emotional units, such that the needs, goals, and emotional responses of patients and their close partners are highly correlated and mutually influencing. For this reason, there has been increased interest in approaching the psychosocial care of the cancer patient with a family-centered lens. In this chapter, we begin with an overview of supportive therapies designed for the intimate couple, and follow this with a description of psychosocial care of the family as a whole. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved). |
