Cancer Self-Help Groups: A Guide

Creating and maintaining an effective support group is not always easy. This manual -- written by and for cancer patients, in collaboration with researchers and other experts -- outlines strategies cancer survivors have discovered and the skills they have developed to meet the challenges of forming and working with their own support groups.

Cancer Self-Help Groups: A Guide builds upon the lessons learned from cancer patients who have started groups and participated as group members, and their stories have been included to help illustrate points in the text. The purpose of this manual is to offer encouragement and ideas to:

people who want to start a cancer self-help group

people who are members of an established group

people who are thinking about facilitating a group

and people who are struggling with problems in cancer groups.

This extraordinarily helpful guide offers a wealth of useful information for those whose lives are affected by cancer. Chapter titles include the following:

The Self-help Spirit: Connecting as a Way of Healing

Getting Started

Organizing Your First Meetings

Challenges Facing Groups

Grief, Loss, Bereavement

Using Humor

Using the Internet for Information, Support and Advocacy

Making Connections Beyond the Group