These are patients who have entered the so-called palliative phase of their illness. Cure is then not an option, but patients often live with their illness for quite some time. For these people, a method has been developed in the United States that gives them a better grip on the impact of their illness: the FOCUS method.
Torque support
FOCUS stands for Family involvement, Outlook, Coping, Uncertainty and Symptom management. The method is intended to provide support to a couple, so the focus is explicitly also on the patient’s informal caregiver or relative. That can be the partner, but also a child, a brother or sister or a good friend.
The Department of Public Health at Erasmus MC is investigating whether the FOCUS method has added value for patients and relatives and, if so, whether it can be offered online or with ‘live’ conversations with an oncology nurse. They do this together with universities in Italy, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Ireland.
“If someone is terminally ill, the first question is usually: how is the sick person? Too little is asked of the loved one: and how are you? While cancer also has a major impact on the loved one,” says researcher and oncology nurse Eric van Wijk.
Van Wijk conducts interviews with the patients and their loved ones for the study. “We’re going to see how the couple communicates with each other about the disease, about the prospects and the uncertainty that this whole process entails,” she says.
Only
Those who are confronted with incurable cancer may have a tendency to want to bear the worries and burdens alone. They do not want to burden immediate loved ones. While that immediate neighbor often wants to help bear that burden, so as not to have to stand by helplessly.
A lot is often filled in for each other, notes Van Wijk. “It is therefore so important that couples express insecurities, worries and sadness to each other. That makes it easier to make it clear to each other how you want to deal with this process. It often turns out to be extremely difficult to ask each other for help.”
By: National Care Guide
