[Significance of self-help groups for psychosocial rehabilitation in cancer]

Experiences of cancer patients' self-help groups can provide impulses for the programming of rehabilitation measures. Exemplary is the information work (information procurement and distribution) of these groups. Problems emanating from disturbed interpersonal relationships and the stigma of the disease are dealt with implicitly rather than explicitly, with only certain patients, however, benefitting selectively from this kind of coping, depending on the stage of the disease and on their social context. The groups succeed in substituting missing or disturbed interpersonal relationships, they sometimes however find it difficult to ward off those aspects of isolation that have arisen with the onset of the disease. These difficulties weigh on other parts of the informal network, especially on the families.