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Psychological aspects | Ch 13 | |
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Cancer raises multiple psychological difficulties: for the patient, for his/her family, but also for physicians and other members of the care team. Interactions among and between all of these people are complex.
In recent years, television documentaries, discussions on laws and ethics, on therapeutic persistence and euthanasia, talks about AIDS and the reconsideration of the model of eternal youth and bodily beauty, have lead to the increased awareness among caregivers and patients alike of the necessity for dialogue.
We now discuss cancer, we talk about death and we talk with patients.
Whatever the diagnosis, the prognosis and the treatment modalities, there is no such thing as a small cancer.
Cancer represents an overwhelming existential ordeal for patients and their families, and affects all aspects of life: the relationship with one’s own body, with one’s relatives, colleagues, friends, neighbours, as well as the sense we give to well-being, to health, to suffering, to illness and, of course to death.
caregivers themselves are not indifferent to such an ordeal. At some point throughout their professional life, they are eventually faced with existential questions for which they must find adequate solutions if they wish to continue their duties, their career or their vocation.
Psychological support for patients aims at offering harmonious treatment progression and quality of life similar to that experienced before cancer.
Such efforts also include the prevention of psychological sequelae likely to handicap the patient in the future. The responsibility of ensuring the success of these efforts is shared among every member of the care team, and of the patient’s close family and friends. Psychological support is neither a luxury nor a complement to anti-cancer treatment: it often represents the key element for the success of a harmonious treatment progression, be it towards remission or towards death.
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Pathological patient reactions caregiver – Patient relationships throughout treatment Attitudes during the palliative phase |
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References |
Index |
(To avoid this chapter appearing as a purely theoretical course, I have included some original illustrations form a CorelDraw series, thus offering an artistic touch to a very serious subject)