Organize your Support Network

The third step in the Cancer MAP is to establish and begin building up your cancer support network.  Unlike your cancer sponsor, who will likely be found outside your circle of family and friends, the search for members of your support network will begin as close as home.  It begins with those who want to help, and have already begun doing so.  It can grow out to those who would help, but don’t know how, and eventually include people who didn’t even know how much they really did want to help!  Research has shown definitively that a support network of well organized patient advocates can actually help reduce your morbidity rate and increase your chances of beating your cancer.  Cancer.im has all the tools you will need to organize your support network, empower them, and give them the direction they need to provide the help you require and that they want to give.

What is a Support Network?

Once you have been diagnosed with cancer, you are at the start of what will be a long and hard battle. You will have to go through tough times and a lot of pain in order to eventually be able to beat the disease. It is a tough journey that takes its toll on an individual. While you will have to go through the most difficult phases on your own, never underestimate the power of support in your battle against cancer.

Organizing your own support group should be one of your first priorities after being diagnosed with cancer. Remember, the support of friends and family is invaluable during this phase. When you have got near and dear ones who understand your pain and stand by you, it does a lot to ease the difficulties of your upcoming journey.  Your spouse, children, parents, close friends and colleagues: all these individuals stand ready to form what we might call your primary support network.

Your wider support network may include your own clergy or spiritual guides, any home care personnel, dieticians, exercise trainers, your oncologist and other medical professionals helping you with your treatment strategy.  While these individuals may not be able to provide the time that those in your primary network have committed to volunteering, they nonetheless are part of the “team” who share the successful treatment of your cancer as the key goal of their work.

Beyond your cancer sponsor and your family and friends, there is one other important piece of your social network puzzle: a support group. There are two different types of support groups: informational, and psychosocial.  Informational groups basically communicate knowledge on a wide variety of issues related to cancer. Subjects might include types of cancer treatments, common side effects, physical therapy following surgery, or how to live with the outcomes of particular tumor-removing operations.  The idea behind this type of support group is simply to inform.

More critical to improving the success of cancer treatment are psychosocial support groups.  These are the supportive/expressive therapeutic programs that focus on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of cancer. Look for groups that take a stance of hope without denying the reality of the illness. At meetings you should expect to express your own fears and frustrations freely and allow others in the group to do the same. You'll learn from the responses of the group members who have overcome cancer, and you'll contribute to those who are just beginning the cancer recovery journey.

One warning: A potential problem with any type of support group is that instead of encouraging personal growth, many groups quickly turn into a "pity party." While there is significant value in allowing people to talk out their problems, the discerning group needs a leader to judge when the talking is therapeutic and when it is rehearsing, and reinforcing, a problem. The "cyber-solace" provided in on-line chat groups is no exception.