It’s never easy learning that you, your loved one, your friend or even a stranger has cancer. And it’s sometimes even harder to express your sympathy, concern or comfort because you can’t find the right words to say. Also, you don’t want to appear callous and insensitive if you keep coming up with clichés.
Bridging the communication gap between patient and visitor
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance—these are the five stages of grief, first proposed by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist, that determine the frame of mind of the person afflicted with cancer and which the well-wisher could use to shape his words.
Harriet H. Hormillosa is the president and founder of Reintegration for Care and Wholeness (RCW) Foundation
Given these stages, according to Harriet Hormillosa, the president and program director of the Reintegration for Care and Wholeness Foundation, who provided insight on the emotional and social states of the patient during his health crisis, it’s in understanding them that you can come to terms with what a patient is experiencing.
Level of familiarity and closeness
One of the key factors, if not the most important factor, in communicating with patients is the level of familiarity you have with the patient as a well-wisher or a visitor. Your type of relationship establishes a level of comfort between you and the patient that makes it easier to be honest with each other. For example, the patient is tired and would like a chance to rest. You wouldn’t be offended if he asked you to leave.
For the rest of the article, please see the July – September 2008 issue.