2011 Volume 23 Issue 3 Pages 295-305
Family members are important care-givers for patients with cancer. This study aims to clarify how family members of cancer patients recognize the psychological burden of cancer patients and psychological care/support for the patients. We administered a self-reported questionnaire via the Internet to five hundred family members. According to the survey results, the family members believed that disease notification (41.4%) was the instance when the patients’ distress was the most severe. The next stressful instance was recrudescence (metastasis) notification (14.0%) ; 26.4% of the family members confirmed that the patients received psychological care/support from the medical staff at this instance. In contrast, 26.9% of them confirmed that the patients did not receive any psychological care/support from the medical staff. The largest number of medical staff providing patients with psychological care/support were attending doctors (86.7%). The next largest number providing such care/support were nurses (38.1%). Moreover, 87.6% of the family members who confirmed that the patients received psychological care/support from the medical staff believed that it had a comforting effect on the patients. Furthermore, 53.5% of the family members confirmed that the patients had consulted someone about their condition. They thought that the person consulted by the patients was a family member (93.9%). They expected that psychological care/support was provided by the attending doctor or another doctor since the beginning (diagnosis) through measures such as empowerment, providing a sense of security, listening to the patient, understanding the patient’s views and anxieties that he/she is unable to express to the family members, and conveying apposite information. It was suggested that the family members of cancer patients recognize the psychological burden of cancer patients and psychological care/support for the patients differently from the cancer patients themselves.
