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Feelings of Support

Dennis O'Hara <[email protected]> and Jules Schwartz (above) in their book Support Group (1997), wrote: "In this disease there is little black and white and so much grey area....We are dealing with human beings who have feelings. This book tells how they react under various circumstances." In June, Dennis will travel to France for a World Health Organization meeting on prostate cancer. We'll take a closer look at their book and at Dennis O'Hara's work later this week. Here I want to look at the greys in support as such.
      Some people about to go online to find help for prostate cancer may wonder if the experience will be isolating, not supportive. Some experts see a dark side. Stanford political scientist Norman Nie says that as people increasingly turn to the Internet for their needs, they shut themselves off from society.
      More than eighty percent of Internet users say that they use it mostly for e-mail. "The technology that has created e-mail is far superior to no contact at all," Nie said, "But I don't think it's superior to social contact or even contact through the telephone. It's a poor substitute for social interaction."
      Is it either/or? Special benefits are available with online support. You can air problems without other people around a table watching you squirm. As another study by Katherine Jameson, James Pennebaker and Sally Dickerson has found, people are more likely to use online support for health problems that are embarrassing. Men with prostate cancer led the way in developing e-mail support lists. Men do have more access to computers; and men treated for this disease do face embarrassing treatment side-effects -- incontinence, loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. E-mail support groups are an ingenious way to get past embarrassment, expose these problems and deal with them.
      And online support helps people to find what they need regardless of unequal services in different regions. Participation in off-line support groups varies from city to city. Dallas, the experts say, has a much lower level of support groups of all types than Chicago. Some places are barren of support. People can get on mailing lists, though, talk to peers all across the USA and find out about the best available care. This frees everyone from local ignorance.
      More than 60 percent of groups describing themselves as self-help, according to Jameson et al, are professionally facilitated. "Self-help and professional help are often perceived as mutually exclusive, but ... such perceptions are misleading," they said. "Group participants may not be resistant to professional input; rather, they may need to speak and be heard about issues not addressed within the health care setting."
      Ever since David Seigel's study of a breast cancer support group, people agree that group membership may actually extend lives. The self-help movement, say these authors, has "tremendous therapeutic potential, especially in the current state of health care, which gives very little attention to people's needs for support."
      Many veterans of online prostate cancer groups might agree that belonging does not automatically lower every member's stress. Individuals and the group as a whole may become acutely stressed by various difficulties, to the point of hostility. A recent study of how naval school personnel react under stress sheds some light on this. The work suffers and so does group cohesion, with "team members barely acknowledging one another." Stress leads to "a narrowing of team perspective." Members lose touch with group goals and start paying attention to "a more narrow or individualistic perspective." This leads to "a breakdown in team performance."
      People usually arrive at a cancer support group looking for help from the group for their individual selves. They haven't really come to play on a team. Once they get some help, many leave; and you might expect all would -- just as, once you've bought your groceries, you leave the supermarket.
      There is a magic in group self-help that causes people to stay on and help others day after day and even year after year. Of course that too can add stress. A compulsion to help can lead to burn out.
      If you are considering starting a prostate cancer support group in you local area or online, brush up your own human relations skills and seek help from people with proven ability in facilitating groups. Take the lead in getting these people on board; or ask them to drop in for periodic visits. Make sure they understand that they are working for you, the prostate cancer survivors and partners. You will improve the chances of making the group cohesive and productive and will minimize risk of flare-ups and drop-outs arising from the stresses and strains of dealing with prostate cancer and treatment effects.

Links and Sources

Support Group: a layman's service manual for surviving prostate cancer, by Dennis O'Hara and Jules Schwartz (1997, SJDJ Inc.) may be purchased for $13:95 to S.J.D.J, P.0. Box # 472, Wappingers Falls, NY, 12590 or e-mail [email protected]

The Stanford Study of the Social Consequences of the Internet

About Norman Nie and the SIQSS project

American Psychological Association Support Groups More Popular Than Ever - Embarrassment Not a Deterrent Kathryn P. Davison, Ph.D., of The Human Asset, Dallas, Texas; James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin and Sally S. Dickerson, B.A., of the University of California at Los Angeles

Does Stress Lead to a Loss of Team Perspective? James E. Driskell, Florida Maxima Corporation; Eduardo Salas, Joan Johnston, Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division; Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, Vol. 3, No. 4.