"Striptease of the soul", "cancer prevention", helpful conversations, or nothing at all-what people affected by cancer imagine cancer counselling to be A qualitative study

Background Cancer counselling centres offer psychosocial help for cancer patients and their relatives in the outpatient sector. Little is known about the perceptions that those affected have of the services offered by cancer counselling centres. Answers to these questions could help to design services in line with needs. Research question What do psychologically stressed people perceive as cancer counselling? Methods Cancer patients and their relatives who had not yet received counselling at a counselling centre were screened in a bicentric study with regard to their psychological distress. Overtly distressed persons were interviewed using guided interviews regarding their perceptions of psychosocial counselling. The content-analytical evaluation was based on Mayring's method. Results In all, 46 (25 men and 21 women) non-advice-seeking persons were interviewed. The respondents often had no or only vague ideas about cancer counselling. Misconceptions (e.g. that cancer counselling is a cancer screening measure) were more likely to be expressed by men than by women. Another group (about equal numbers of men and women) had negative perceptions, especially of exposure and stigmatisation. A fourth, relatively large, group of non-advice seekers had accurate perceptions of what cancer counselling can do, e.g. help with social or sociolegal issues and coping with psychological distress caused by cancer. Conclusion Physicians treating cancer patients should know that some cancer patients and their relatives still have wrong or no ideas about cancer counselling. By informing them about the existence of cancer counselling centres and their range of services, they could help to improve this.