Social Support, Counselling, and Cancer

Maintenance of self-esteem and of social relationships are major tasks for cancer patients, and are facilitated by supportive interactions with a variety of others. Different sources potentially provide different forms of support. Patients value informational support from doctors, with concurrent emotional support; family members and confidants specialise in the provision of empathy, reassurance of personal worth, and encouragement; and other cancer patients may act as supplementary sources of both information and empathy. Counsellors may provide direct social support in the forms of empathy and access to material help and information, and may also facilitate socially supportive interactions between the patient and other natural providers of support such as doctors, family, and peers.