Chronically Ill Patients: Family Support and Support Groups

Family support of the chronically ill patient is especially important, not only because it enhances the patient's physical and emotional functioning but also because it can promote adherence to treatment. Family members may not only remind the patient about activities that need to be undertaken but also tie treatment to already existing activities in the family so that adherence is more likely. For example, the family may undertake a daily job through the neighborhood just before breakfast or dinner.

Sometimes family members also need guidance in the well-intentioned actions they should nonetheless avoid because such actions actually make things worse. For example, many family members think they should encourage a chronically ill patient to be relentlessly cheerful, which can have the unintended adverse effect of making the patient feel unable to share distress or concern with others.

At different times during the course of an illness, patients may be best served by different kinds of support. Tangible aid, such as being driven to and from medical appointments, may be important at some points in time. At other times, however, emotional support may be more important.

In helping separate supportive from potentially unsupportive behaviors. Friends and relatives may themselves require interventions. Even the simple provision of information may be helpful to family members who must provide social support to a chronically ill individual over the long term. In one study of wives of men who had heart attacks, the majority reported feeling poorly informed about myocardial infarction, they reported few opportunities to ask experts questions, and they consequently experienced considerable stress. A short intervention designed t acquaints family or friends with a disease could ameliorate such situations.
Social support groups represent a resourceful for the chronically ill. Such groups are available for many patients with chronic illnesses, including stroke patients, patients recovering from myocardial infarction, and cancer patients. Some of these groups are initiated by a therapist, and in some cases they are patient-led.
These support groups discuss issues of mutual concern that arise as a consequence of illness. They often provide specific information about how others have successfully dealt with an opportunity to share their emotional responses with others facing the same problems. Social support groups can satisfy unmet needs for social support from family can caregivers or they may act as an additional source of support provided by those going through the same event. Although traditionally social support groups have met on a face-to-face basis to exchange personal accounts and information. The internet now provides manifold opportunities for giving and receiving social support and information.