Psychosocial therapy

Psychosocial therapy is focused on maintaining the quality of life and restoring the patient's social activity, includes elements of behavioral psychotherapy and allows to restore and improve the patient's social skills and communication skills. Psychosocial therapy classes can be held in the format of communication trainings that teach independent behavior, skills of successful communication and social adaptation, self-presentation and achievement of goals. It can also be job training with the provision of psychological support to patients in the process of finding a job and solving adaptive problems in a new team, as well as consolidating their position in it. The patient and his family are accompanied by a specialist who teaches them how to maintain their social circle, friends and attachments, as well as establish warm and supportive family relationships so that the disease does not become an obstacle that completely changes their lifestyle.

Severe somatic diseases, including cancer, can lead to a critical lifestyle change, forcing the patient to give up his job, goals, career, habits and hobbies. This may also apply to relatives who are fully dedicated to caring for the patient. Psychosocial therapy allows you to support a family at a time when it is going through a crisis, to cope with the changes that the disease brings to the family, and to reorganize life in such a way that the needs of each family member are preserved and realized, communication with friends, doing what you love, etc. are not eliminated from life. We structure the life of the patient and his loved ones in such a way that everything valuable and important, giving strength and resources, is preserved.

Since caring for a person who has been ill for a long time is a long process, there is a high risk of developing so–called "emotional exhaustion" ("burnout") relatives who take care of the patient. According to statistics, if a family has not received external support for helping its seriously ill relative for a year and a half, it inevitably begins to experience symptoms of emotional burnout. In this regard, working with a specialist is often very resource-intensive and opens up new opportunities for loved ones to deal with the disease.

Psychosocial therapy also applies to patients suffering from psychiatric disorders, depression, and schizophrenic spectrum disorders. In this regard, the task of psychosocial therapy is to accompany the patient not only to cope with the symptoms of the disease, but also to ensure that the person retains a full–fledged quality of life, can continue to move towards their goals and respond correctly to periods of exacerbation of the disease, which may require hospitalization.

Psychosocial therapy involves working directly with the patient himself and his attitude to the world around him (family, friends, etc.). Relatives and friends who take care of a sick relative also experience high levels of stress and may need psychotherapeutic support, so the doctor's task is not only to cope with the symptoms of depression and depression in the patient, but also to provide support to relatives and friends, to train them in the skills of patient support and effective communication with him, especially in difficult situations when a person may experience despair and apathy in the treatment of the disease.

Psychosocial work can take place in different formats – it can be individual meetings with the patient and his relatives, often classes are held in the format of joint communication with both relatives and the patient, when we teach the family proper support and understanding of each other's capabilities and needs. Psychosocial therapy can also take place in a group format, when we work with teenagers to establish proper communication, teach them how to behave in a peer group and how to solve complex and conflict situations, get rid of negative emotions.