Assisting Survivors in Meeting Challenges at the End of Treatment: A problem-Solving Approach

摘要

Cancer survivorship begins at diagnosis and continues beyond treatment. Although attention has been paid to psychosocial issues at diagnosis and active treatment, less has been paid to the end of active treatment when survivors face rising role expectations, fears of relapse, and the need to confront appearance and relationship change. This project focuses on increasing coping skills among breast cancer survivors at the end of active treatment. We will implement a skills-focused, problem-solving intervention (PSI), and evaluate its effects relative to routine care. The PSI is brief, non- stigmatizing, and disseminated in a single, four-hour group intervention. It focuses on building skills for problem definition, alternative generation, decision making, and solution implementation and evaluation. It also incorporates telephone follow-up at two and four weeks after the intervention to allow patients to discuss difficulties and receive additional instruction. This enhances the initial contact without increasing burden, allowing continued intervention with a geographically dispersed population. If effective, this intervention will point toward inexpensive and acceptable interventions that allow cancer survivors to define and ameliorate their own psychosocial stressors. This project is awaiting final contract approval by the Department of Defense prior to accruing participants.