Support groups often play an important role on the road to healing, whether someone has recently received a cancer diagnosis and is unsure how to process their feelings, is in the midst of treatment and is looking to share their experiences with peers who can relate to their “new normal,” or perhaps is a caregiver or family member looking for a place to discuss resources and their own stresses. However, not all support groups are the same.
When Dolan Kneafsey, MSS, a social worker at PPMC’s Abramson Cancer Center, realized that the language surrounding many support groups and online resources “were clearly geared toward female patients,” he sought to create a safe space for men in which they could open up and discuss topics like their fears, anger, loss of ego, and “impotence or other problems that they didn’t feel comfortable bringing up” around women – including the female members of their care team.
“It’s sometimes hard to get them in, but I say, ‘Come for pizza. If you don’t like it, you can leave,’” Kneafsey said. “Once in, I hear ‘I wish I had started coming sooner.’”