Cancer Self-Help Groups: A Guide

Contains good variety of suggestions for starting & running member-run ("self-help") support groups. The insights, perspectives and helpful hints are organized under many well-chosen subject headings like: "Are There Any Risks or Limitations to Self-Help?", "Do All Self-Help Groups Work?", "Consider Why You Want to Do This Work", "Group Membership: the Benefits & Challenge of Diversity", "Different Kinds of Group Facilitation", and "When a Facilitator is Doing Too Much". Kelly also addresses the rarely-written-about opportunities for: a group "Agreement", a "Group Journal", group "evaluation", and "How to Introduce Humor into a Cancer Group." All-in-all, it's a good concise guide that doesn't overwhelm. Has fairly good list of real world and some of the better Internet resources (although it has our old URL address. Here's update - American Self-Help Group Clearinghouse Selfhelpgroup.org).It's a long overdue guide, that can help cancer patients, survivors and "thrivers" help one another to share their experiences, fears, strengths, and hopes. As one wise doctor put it... "My years as a medical practitioner, as well as my own first-hand experience, have taught me how important self-help groups are in assisting their members in dealing with problems, stress, hardship and pain. Today, the benefits of mutual aid are experienced by millions of people who turn to others with a similar problem to attempt to deal with their isolation, powerlessness, alienation, and the awful feeling that nobody understands." - Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, MD, 1992.