Living Life after Cancer Treatment: A Cancer Survivorship Support Group Evaluation

Purpose. Support group attendance has been found to be beneficial to cancer survivors’ psychological wellbeing. This research explores the patient-reported efficacy of ‘Living Life after Cancer Treatment’ programme for cancer survivors who have completed treatment. Method. Two focus groups were conducted including programme participants who were either two weeks or six months post-completion of a structured support group programme. One supporter (caregiver) who had recently completed the programme was also interviewed. Results were analysed using a Framework Analysis approach. Results. Five themes were identified. In ‘Meeting unmet social support needs’, participants identified the importance of emotionally offloading without overburdening their families. Though not all participants benefitted from all information provided, in ‘Meeting unmet informational needs’ they reported that they could see how it benefitted others. In ‘The benefit of belonging to a group’ participants reported that smaller group discussions were particularly helpful in terms of developing peer-support. ‘Looking to the future’ was important and the programme was sufficient to meet some participant’s needs; others, however, were keen to continue accessing similar support. In ‘Programme evaluation’ participants advocated the continuation of the programme, but many believed that it should be implemented sooner after diagnosis. Conclusions. The programme is a valuable resource with survivors and supporters finding benefit in attending. Meeting previously unmet social support and informational needs is a chief outcome of this programme, echoing previous research. The findings are being used to inform development of this programme for both local and wider implementation. Chester Research Online 2013:CRO:2 3