‘I think it’s really vital for women to know that there are women who get a reasonable survival time and who manage to live reasonably happy lives and get on with living…
About this service
The service currently consists of a weekly group for women with advanced breast cancer, and a monthly group for partners and adult family members of participating women. All groups are offered face to face and by audio teleconference, to allow rural women and families in Queensland to participate.
Our DVD, “You’re Not Alone”, is offered as a free resource to women and their families who are affected by breast cancer, as well as the health professionals involved in their care. The service is also partnered with the online Internet Forum, www.bcaus.org.au
There are few support services for women with advanced breast cancer in Australia. In our experience, women with advanced breast cancer sometimes feel a ‘failure’ in support groups where other members have survived primary cancer. They feel that they need to talk about fears of death and dying, but this may be seen as ‘not being positive.’
It is for these reasons, among others, that the Advanced Breast Cancer Group was established in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1999. It is also why this site has been developed. The service is sponsored by The Women’s Psychotherapy Service Inc. .
This is a unique service offering ongoing support to women with advanced breast cancer, through a cancer support group which is professionally led.
It is delivered with women in the room in Brisbane, and using teleconference, simultaneously to women throughout rural and remote Queensland.
This combination helps overcome isolation by connecting women and enabling them to speak with one another, from Cairns in the north, to the Gold Coast in the south.
Read more about those who work in the service…and about Dr Bronwen Beacham.
Mary O’Brien
Mary has been involved with the Group for Women with Advanced Breast Cancer since it’s inception in 1999.
She is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers, the Queensland Psychoanalytic-Psychotherapy Association, and the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists. She has over 20 years of clinical experience, and works in private practice offering individual, couples and group psychotherapy.
Pia Hirsch
Pia joined the service in January of 2004, following the retirement of Dr Bronwen Beacham.
She is a member of the Australian Association of Occupational Therapists and the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists.
She has over 20 years clinical experience, and works in private practice offering individual and group psychotherapy.
Tom O’Brien
Tom O’Brien is a Social Worker and Psychotherapist. He is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of Queensland and a Consultant Psychotherapist in the Mater Child & Youth Mental Health Service.
He is active in teaching at post-graduate level throughout Australia and in New Zealand and has leadership positions in professional associations. He is currently the President of the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists and is a former President of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia.
Jill Harris
Jill is the research assistant for the service.
Her position includes transferring the data collected from questionnaires (completed by women who attend the group), into a statistical computerised spreadsheet, from which various analyses are conducted. Jill has also been involved in research projects at Griffith University and the University of Queensland. She has concluded her PhD at Griffith University in the area of cognitive psychology, using EEGs to identify correlates of implicit memory – a type of unconscious memory.
Tina Gardiner
Tina is the administration officer and has a behind-the-scenes role in the group. She deals with much of the correspondence, and reminds women who are in the group to complete the 6-monthly evaluation questionnaires.
From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever, That dead men rise up never,
That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea.
AC Swinburne.
The Garden of Proserpine.
Dr Bronwen Beacham
As an experienced Group psychotherapist, Bron was approached by Dr David Kissane to run such groups as part of a randomized controlled trial he was wishing to conduct.
The trial was subsequently restricted to Melbourne, but having developed an interest in the idea of setting up such a group, and realizing that there were very few, if any, specific services for women with advanced breast cancer in Australia at that time, Bron and Mary O’Brien decided to set up the group in 1999 as a community based service.
Dr Bronwen Beacham retired from The Group for Women with Advanced Breast Cancer in December 2003. She is a psychiatrist and Group Psychotherapist. She is a member of the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists and the Queensland Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association.
