“It Doesn't End on the Last Day of Treatment”

Abstract

Living through early stage breast cancer is not simply about overcoming a short-term crisis. The lived experience of women at the completion of adjuvant treatment calls for a reconsideration of the timing and type of psychosocial interventions provided. A Post Adjuvant Treatment Support Program (PATS) was developed and piloted over a nine-month period with pleasing results. The program aims to mark the end of treatment and promotes active coping through sharing common experiences, normalizing responses to completion of treatment, encouraging consideration of the meaning of the experience, and facilitating the use of stress management and cognitively based coping skills. Innovative methods to encourage focused group discussion are being developed. The intervention addresses the specific and previously unmet needs of women at the end-of-treatment phase of early stage breast cancer.

Key Words:

• Survivorship
• breast cancer
• psychoeducation
• group work