Self-Management Support
- DOI:
- 10.1093/med/9780199363315.003.0058
Living with cancer requires skillful self-management, which is a strong determinant of health outcomes. Collaborative self-management partnerships among patients with cancer, their family caregivers, and healthcare providers are key. This chapter discusses how to best facilitate self-management support among these parties. As context, it tracks the shifting paradigm around patients’ participation in their healthcare. Next, the chapter defines self-management, its processes, and the “coming of age” of self-management in cancer that reflects a growing appreciation of the importance of cancer self-management and its demands. It reviews self-management support interventions in terms of their components and delivery methods, provides examples of successful cancer self-management support interventions, and discusses challenges particular to cancer self-management support, as well as strategies to address them. It concludes with an overview of new directions in cancer self-management support, including understudied populations and enduring issues in delivery of self-management support as part of modern healthcare.