Building resilience on adolescents with cancer: a psychoeducational program

摘要

Purpose: To develop a psychoeducational program in order to increase resilience in adolescent with cancer (AWC). Methods: A needs assessment was initially conducted in order to identify the most important psychological issues that teenagers with cancer have to deal with. Based on the results and literature review a booklet for participants was developed. The content of the booklet incorporates the cognitive-behavioral principles and resilience protective factors. Results: The main topics were information about disease and treatment; emotion management; communication with friends and family and bodily changes management. Among the most effective coping strategies used by AWC were: instrumental actions performed during hospitalization, such as reading, watching movies, internet or activities in the playroom, optimism and positive thinking. We noticed that AWC from this study had weak strategies for emotion management, often used avoidance as a coping mechanism and didn't use friends as a source of social support. The implications of these strategies are being discussed below. Discussion: A resilience program tailored to the needs of AWC can be an efficient tool for adaptation to disease.