The psychological needs of family members of cancer patients

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to identify and study the psychological needs of the family members of cancer patients in India for their relationship to various psycho-socio-demographic factors. The different domains studied were Dealing with Sadness, Dealing with Anger, Dealing with Emotional Exhaustion, Dealing with Worry, Dealing with Fear, Dealing with Hopelessness, Need for Informal Support and Need for Formal Support.  The psycho-socio-demographic factors that were studied for their relationship with the domains included: gender, age, and financial, familial and cultural factors. A questionnaire was created based on previous research and used to collect responses from family members, following which the responses were quantitatively analysed. The findings of this study were that family members of cancer patients did report having needs in almost all domains, and psycho-socio-demographic factors did influence these needs. This understanding would help increase and improve professional help for the family members of cancer patients.