The social impact of cancer

Patients with cancer and their families often experience an enhanced need for "social support." Social support has been found to be empirically related to influencing health outcomes. It was noted that there are nine different types of social support, with "emotional support" being one of the most important. There are also different providers of social support, with the immediate family being the most common provider. Examples of interventions for nurses as providers of social support were outlined. In addition, the processes involved in the provision of social support, and the costs and consequences of providing social support were discussed. "Ironically, cancer may often undermine one of the strongest potential resources people have in coping with the disease--their social relationships. In fact, the social relationships of the cancer patient may not only fail to buffer them against the stress of cancer, but may provide additional sources of distress" (Wortman, 1984, p. 2341).