Group meetings for parents and spouses of bone marrow transplant patients.

To reduce the stress and social isolation of being the parent or spouse of a patient hospitalized for bone marrow transplantation (BMT), a support group for family members was established. Sharing the common experience of the BMT procedure was valuable to family members despite differences in patient's age or disease, relationship to the patient, or socio-economic status. Recommendations are made to include similar groups in planning to meet the psychosocial needs of family members at other centers where patients are treated with high-risk, high intensity procedures.