Occupation as a vehicle to surmount the psychosocial challenges of cancer.
Research indicates that cancer presents challenges to one's social relationships, identity, and ability to live each day to the fullest. Occupation can be a powerful vehicle that one can use to respond to and cope with these psychosocial challenges. However, literature also suggests that occupation can be a problematic vehicle because many persons with cancer report frustration with their ability to engage in daily occupations. This paper synthesizes the research describing these psychosocial challenges and explores the nature of occupational engagement for persons with the life-threatening illness of cancer. Interpreting the research from the standpoint of the Person-Environment-Occupation Model suggests that variations in the congruence between person, environment, and occupation is an intuitively plausible explanation for differing perceptions of the quality of occupational engagement for persons with cancer.
Center for Psycho-Oncology Research at Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH.
Kathleen Doyle
KD
Lyons