A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF BREAST-CANCER SELF-HELP GROUPS

This study reports on the experience of women in four community breast cancer self-help groups in Ontario, Canada. Semi-structured interview s were conducted with 24 women, asking them about benefits and limitat ions of their group involvement, and about their perspectives on group processes and structures. Overall, participants reported their group involvement to be extremely helpful for navigating the short and long- term impact of breast cancer. Emotional support benefits included conn ecting with other breast cancer survivors, feeling understood and shar ing experiences, providing hope, and sharing healing laughter. Informa tional and practical support benefits included sharing of important in formation and learning how to get what you want. Even where there were concerns about limitations or tensions of group experience, these occ urred against a backdrop of appreciation and commitment. From the disc ussion of group processes and structures, a number of issues were iden tified as problematic. Most notable were how to deal with deaths of gr oup members and how to balance the group's primary purpose of providin g mutual support with secondary goals of dealing with group business a nd engaging in meaningful advocacy. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.