Role of Family

How Family and Friends can help the patient?


Are you a family member or a friend of a patient? Then this small write up is written for you.

What is needed by patients to emerge successfully is love, lots of love from family members and friends. Patients need love and support desperately.

Just as a mother in labour pain would feel less pain if she is surrounded by caring people, any patient would also feel less of misery if he is surrounded by a loving and caring atmosphere. Love is stronger than diseased cells in the patients body and your love can help him come out alive hale and healthy.

Love has a powerful healing power. There is no difficulty or disease that enough love cannot conquer. If only you could love enough the patient, he is sure to recover. Loving the patient is the best gift you can give to him or her. It is love, which binds and heals, comforts and restores and works to create the miracle. Thus family members can prove to be the lifeline for the patients.

Don’t allow the patient to go down fighting his problems all alone. Remain as a symbol of friendship and love. The patient needs to feel time and again that there are lots of people who care about him and are praying for him.

· It is your job to comfort the patient and give him strength so that he can call them in his aid.
· Your love and support to him will provide him incredible strength.
· Your visits, hugs, your smiles, your touch, your hand shakes all have a healing value.
· These can literally save his life.
· Help him live freely surrounded by hope, inspiration, support and love.
· Engulf the patient with hugs and change everyone’s emotional state.

If one in family has got cancer, the family members could feel as if the whole family has got the cancer. There is contagious effect of illness. If the patient is despondent, each member of the family could feel the same way. Each one could carry nightmares. Therefore

· Hold regular family gatherings and keep the lines of communication open.
· Encourage every one to ask questions, speak honestly and vent their emotions. .
· Let these meetings see through lot of caring and giving.
· Spend time in talking.
· Hold each other and talk about your lives together.
· Hold each other for a long time.
· Help the patient to unload his heavy burdens.

Relatives and friends can also create a family medicine if they can make a special audio or video tape for the patient with messages from all family members, relatives and friends which the patient can listen to or see again and again.