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Meaning in adjustment to cancer: A model of care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2008

Carrie Lethborg ,
Sanchia Aranda  and
David Kissane
Carrie Lethborg*
Affiliation:
Department of Oncology, St. Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Australia
Sanchia Aranda
Affiliation:
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and School of Nursing, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
David Kissane
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Carrie Lethborg, Oncology Department, St. Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, 3104. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objectives:

In the clinical setting of cancer, meaning may well have a central role in the life changes the illness experience brings about. As health care professionals working with people with life-threatening illness, we are exposed to one of the major turning points in life and the ways people confront this transition. Meaning can assist coping by offering a framework, perspective, and counterbalance to the challenge of illness. However, the absence of meaning can be a precursor to profound despair.

Methods:

This article brings together the clinical implications of two studies conducted by the authors that explored the role of meaning in adjustment to cancer, presenting a theoretical understanding of the experience of meaning in cancer and identifying some potential approaches to intervention.

Results:

Our findings point to some specific goals of care as well as a number of therapeutic modalities aimed to meet these goals. We examine four goals of care—acknowledging suffering, encouraging a search for meaning, strengthening connection with others, and ensuring optimal physical care—as foundational in any clinical approach and then examine the key models of therapy that assist the clinician in pursuing these goals.

Significance of results:

Our aim is to create an integrated approach to care provision that locates meaning centrally in any patient's adaptation.

Keywords

Meaning based copingAdjustment to cancerSufferingPsychosocial interventionStrengthening connection with others
Type
Review Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 61 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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