Hold on, for each other - supporting partners of cancer patients via Ehealth and positive psychology
Partners of cancer patients are an essential pillar in the cancer trajectory. They fulfill a wide variety of care and support roles (e.g. assist patient with personal care and nursing, accompany patient to medical appointments, provide emotional support) and they also have to manage additional tasks in the household or family situation (e.g. take care of children or manage household chores). Since the patient is one of the dearest persons in the partner’s life to whom they devote most of their time, it is not easy for the partner to sometimes disengage from being the caregiver. Accordingly, the patient’s disease and the challenging situation it creates have a profound impact on the partner’s life and future perspectives. While doing everything to help the patient feel better, the partners often neglect their own feelings and needs. Consequently, partners’ positive intentions can also be a trap that undermines their own health and resilience. Previous research has shown that the patient’s cancer can have an enormous impact on the partner’s life and (mental) health. For example, many partners suffer from anxiety and depression and they often experience physical health problems (e.g. pain, fatigue, disturbed sleep) as a result of their caregiving tasks. Additionally, the cancer can have a negative influence on the partners’ social lives and their relationship/marriage. These are only some of the negative impacts of being a partner of a cancer patient.
To support partners of cancer patients, psychological interventions are needed. However, partners of cancer patients are often extremely busy and supporting them can be challenging. Web-based intervention offer a possible solution to aiding partners since such interventions circumvent caregivers’ time restraints and daily, unpredictable demands by being easily accessible and flexible in use. In order to fulfill partners’ needs and meet their challenges, the main aim of this research project was to develop and evaluate a psychological Web-based self-help intervention for partners of cancer patients that would be based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and self-compassion.
The research questions were as follows:
- Is a Web-based intervention a useful and effective alternative for partners of cancer patients?
- Are the processes of ACT and self-compassion applicable and beneficial for this target group?
- Is co-creation useful in the development of a Web-based intervention for partners of cancer patients? Based on the studies in this thesis it can be concluded that a Web-based self-help intervention is a good alternative for partners of cancer patients, that processes of ACT and self-compassion are useful and applicable to this target group, and that co-creation is essential to develop an acceptable and user-friendly Web-based intervention. This thesis has contributed to the growing awareness of the challenging situation partners of cancer patients are confronted with. Although we focused on partners of cancer patients, we think that the obtained insights are also of great value and potentially helpful for other groups, such as all caregivers of cancer patients and also partners and caregivers of patients suffering from other chronic diseases.
