Our research objectives for the final year of support are: (1) to complete interviews with patients who have attended, never attended, or left cancer support groups in order to detail more fully their attitudes toward support groups, reasons for participating or not, and their ideal support group experience; (2) to use these data, as well as the questionnaire data from our first two years, to design an altered format for a cancer support group to broaden their appeal, especially to male, low-SES and minority patients; (3) to develop groups embodying this revised format and evaluate their success against a more traditional support group format modelled after Make Today Count; and (4) to develop alternative means of providing social support to individuals disinclined to use support groups for this purpose.
