Assessment of the Need for Psychological Help for Cancer Patients and Their Close Relatives
The paper addresses the issue of the need for psychological assistance for cancer patients and their close relatives. Considering an increase in the prevalence of cancer, we observe a growing number of people who are closely faced with a critical situation of cancer and the associated physical, psychological and social difficulties. The hypothesis was that these two groups have the need for psychological help, which can be expressed explicitly (in the form of a desire to get a referral, actual visiting the specialist, thoughts about getting help), or implicitly (in the form of intense fears, emotional distress caused by the disease). The study involved cancer patients (N=73, 43 women) and close relatives of cancer patients (N=426, 268 women) over 18 years old. The respondents answered the questions of the online questionnaire about problems, experiences, fears, the desire to get a referral and actual getting psychological help, the reasons for it, psycho-stigmatizing attitudes. A pronounced need for psychological help was revealed, observed both explicitly and implicitly. An indirect confirmation of the effectiveness of psychological assistance for reducing the intensity of fears was found: the group of those who consulted a psychologist had a lower level of fears as compared to those who did not (p=0,006). The reasons for not seeking help include three main barriers: lack of information about the possibility of receiving help, its inaccessibility, psycho-stigmatizing attitudes. The results indicate the need for outreach and awareness work among both vulnerable groups and the entire population, to combat stigmatizing attitudes, as well as to inform cancer patients and their relatives about the possibility and importance of receiving psychological help.