PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To test whether the intervention has a beneficial effect on spouses' outcome variables.
II. To test whether the intervention has a beneficial effect on ill partners (patients') outcome variables.
OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms.
ARM I: Participants receive the "What's Happening to the Woman I Love?" booklet, which focuses on ways to understand and deal with marital communication and relationship issues arising from breast cancer diagnosis.
ARM II: Participants undergo the Helping Her Heal educational counseling program comprising 5 1-hour sessions 2 weeks apart.
SESSION I: Participants learn stress management skills and discover ways stress affects themselves and their partner.
SESSION II: Participants practice attentive listening and reduce the tendency to try to distract patients from talking about sad or difficult aspects of the cancer experience.
SESSION III: Patients learn to help their spouse talk when she is quiet or withdrawn, to add to their understanding of what she is thinking and feeling, and to add to their ways of supporting her during especially difficult times with the cancer.
SESSION IV: Participants learn strategies for physically reconnecting with spouses.
SESSION V: Participants review skills from prior sessions, identify strategies he or she will continue to use to manage their personal stress, and identify ways to maintain connection and support.
After completion of study, patients are followed up at 3 and 6 months.
