Main description:

The contributors to this volume make convincing cases that communication is an intrinsic element of cancer care and holds unique communicative challenges for older adults. The chapters in the first section focus on some aspect of how older adults deal with issues of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and how their unique identities play a role. The chapters in the second part shift attention to some of the more salient survivorship issues inherent in cancer communication research. The chapters in the third section raise a number of issues that seek to identify issues of cultural values, spirituality, and end-of-life to help patients cope with their internal strife.

Contents:

Conceptualizing Cancer Communication and Aging, Lisa Sparks, H. Dan O'Hair, and Gary L. Kreps.; COMMUNICATING ABOUT CANCER INFORMATION AND AGING: ISSUES OF PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, AND IDENTITY.; The Impact of Cognitive and Emotive Communication Barriers on Older Adult Message Processing of Cancer Related Health Information, Lisa Sparks and Monique Mitchell Turner. Information Seeking in an Information Age: Genomics Online, Roxanne Parrott, Janice Kreiger, Kami Silk, and Nichole Egbert. Connecting Health, Communication, and Aging: Cancer Communication and Older Adults, Jon F. Nussbaum, Doreen Baringer, Carla L. Fisher, and Amanda L. Kundrat. Social Identity and Health: An Intergroup Communication Approach to Cancer, Jake Harwood and Lisa Sparks.; COMMUNICATING ABOUT CANCER SURVIVORSHIP AND AGING: ISSUES OF COMFORT, HEALING, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT.; Comforting Episodes: Transcendent Experiences of Cancer Survivors, Athena du Pre and Eileen Berlin Ray. Finding Hope and Healing: Composing and Re-Composing Survivor Identities, Jennifer Ott Anderson and Patricia Geist-Martin. When Black Women Talk About Breast Cancer: How Health Care Workers Need to Learn to Listen, Margaret Chamberlain Wilmoth, Boyd Davis, and L. Delores Sanders. Cancer and Older Adults: A Model of Technology and Social Support, James D. Robinson, Jeanine W. Turner, and Teresa L. Thompson. Online Support Groups among Older Adults with Cancer and their Lay Caregivers, Jim L. Query, Jr. and Kevin B. Wright. When the Parent Has Cancer: A Life-Span Developmental Approach to Communication Competency, Humor Orientation, and Relational Satisfaction in the Older Adult Parent-Adult Child Relationship, Elizabeth Harzold and Lisa Sparks.; COMMUNICATING ABOUT CANCER CONTEXTS AND AGING: ISSUES OF CULTURAL VALUES, SPIRITUALITY, AND END OF LIFE.