万花筒2008-01-04:Health Minute: Support groups 病患互助小组

Support groups offer emotional help following the diagnosis¹ of an illness. CNN's Judy Fortin reports

The thought of opening up and sharing personal details of an illness with strangers may not appeal to everyone,but many people do welcome the reinforcement they offer. " I think the major benifit of any support group is for you to be able to say I'm not alone." Doctor Wendy Lens says people with diseases and medical condition who attend support groups suffer less stress and their pain is often diminished."You can be yourself, you can share your experiences, you can learn from others' experience". Doctors are careful to tell patients with life-threatening conditions that support groups won't prolong their lives. "We don't tell people that support groups are going to give them a longer life, but what we definitely can tell them is it will help them to live better." Doctors Lens recommends finding a support group that offers confidentiality², one where you don't have to talk if you don't feel like it, but encourages you to share.Look for a group where attendance is not mandatory³, and if you are not feeling supported, she tells patients to leave. For today's health minute, I'm Judy Fortin.

1 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

2 confidentiality   

n.秘而不宣，保密

参考例句：

• They signed a confidentiality agreement. 他们签署了一份保守机密的协议。
• Cryptography is the foundation of supporting authentication, integrality and confidentiality. 而密码学是支持认证、完整性和机密性机制的基础。

3 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。