Educational Support Programme for Gynaecological Cancer Patients and Their Families

Support group programme for relatives of terminally ill cancer patients

“…It was surprising to note that the information and education part of the programme was experienced as less important, considering the results of the evaluation [20] of the APHCT. In Carlsson and Strang's educational and support groups [6], informative and educational versus mutual support were considered as equally important.…”

“…Several studies have shown the benefit of such groups for patients [2,3,4,6,12]. In some of the cited studies [6,12], patients' relatives were invited to attend the educational support groups. Some educational group programmes have been conducted exclusively for relatives of cancer patients [9,10,18,19].…”

“…The rationale for the project was that more support was needed, as evidenced from the abovementioned evaluation. The support group programme was based on the pedagogy used in Carlsson and Strang's educational and support group programme for patients with gynaecological cancer and their families [5,6]. The groups consisted of five to nine family members who were caring for cancer patients in advanced palliative home care.…”

“…Twenty relatives of terminally ill patients were asked whether they were interested in a group programme and, if so, to rank the most important topics ( Table 1). The topics were selected based on (1) the topics in Carlsson and Strang's group programme [5,6], (2) a review of the literature, and (3) the clinical experience of the authors and the staff from the APHCT. Eighteen relatives were interested and their ranking is shown in Table 2.…”

Prise en compte de l'entourage des patients atteints de cancer

“…L'évaluation de leur impact parait nettement positive [22]. Les Suédois ont égale-ment des programmes d'information spécifiques réservés aux malades atteints de cancers gynécologiques et à leurs proches [2].…”