From “Being Helped” to “Mutual Help”: Effectiveness Evaluation on Self-Help Group

Abstract

Background: In the field of cancer caring, ACS is best known as self-help community among patients. Reach to Recovery, a sharing program between senior breast cancer patients and new comers, for example, helps new patients to understand the treatment process in a relatively more moderate way. Additionally, sense of control and adapted self-image are regained through the sharing between senior and new patients. In 2014, researchers managed to arrange a support group for cancer patients named “Going onto the Next Stop”, a program in which 9 consistent members meet five times as a group for 5 weeks for a total of 16 hours. At the last meting, one member suggested to form an online chatting group named “Forever-Salute”, which means “getting together healthily forever”. With “Forever-Salute”, members hope to create regular meetings as a powerful pivot to each other, thus supporting all members to transform from being helped to mutual help, from receiving help from social workers to helping each other. Aim: To understand the function and meaning to members´ daily lives. Methods: The method for data collecting is focus group. Results: The research shows that empathy between cancer patients can be more easily perceived than that of their family or friends. The program excelled what was initially expected when we see how those patients responded in the group and how they lived out their lives. In the program, talking freely and keeping each other company are important principles. They were also expected to discuss more about how they adapt their lives in the future and topics that might seem as positive. Aside from encouraging passive patients to be more active, they also wish to include more members who are in need. Conclusion: Researchers recommended deeper sharing to be included based on trust among group members, so as to increase mutual merging in the future to obtain more support from each other. In addition, professional intervention is not always necessary to existing self-help communities. It takes one's experience and tactical evaluation to determine when and how much to intervene. When a group transforms from a professional-guided self-help community to an independent one, the transition of the professional leader to simply as a noncancer-participant plays a vital part. During the process the authority is returned and shared between group members, which means making decisions for themselves, deciding how they interact and how they are assigned to certain tasks; and the awareness of sharing leadership in a self-help community is highlighted. Further, professional workers also need to be aware of keeping the group flexible and open, making sure that questions are allowed and power in between members are in a dynamic flow to ensure autonomy and mutual support in a community.