Communicating about illness: a family narrative

Introduction Cancer is often so pervasive that healthcare systems are generally unaware of the impact it has in shaping the social images of the illness reality within the family milieu. Families are catapulted into an unfamiliar environment where they have little or no time emotionally and psychologically to incorporate, absorb and integrate the illness within the average course of their lives. This presentation will examine how communication, in its multi-faceted forms, can be the conduit by which the patient, family, and healthcare team negotiate their way successfully through the illness trajectory. Family narratives in confronting illness Families and patients construct their own personal narratives to apprehend the meaning of the illness experience. Although there is a tendency to construct profoundly different interpretations of the same event, these narratives can teach us how illness can be a non-threatening communicative phenomenon. Conclusion Communication, verbally or non-verbally, represents more than just a singular act. It symbolizes the complexity of family interactions as members confront the illness. Communication with families means developing an ethic of negotiation and accommodation, a balancing suggested as the basis for the physician–family relationship.