I ended my last post with a question: Is it wrong to hold your tongue and let them [patients] believe what they want to believe...if it's helping them feel better emotionally and is helping them get good care?
There is no one right answer, and it's never an easy call. The best answer in a particular situation depends on your relationship to the individual patient and the potential consequences of contradicting him or her.
Yes, it may be wise to hold your tongue. If the ultimate goal is to help them become Healthy Survivors -- i.e., to get good care and live as fully as possible -- they don't need you to say anything, since they are already Healthy Survivors. Note that doing the right things, even if for the wrong reasons, is still doing the right things.
One possible benefit of speaking up is your planting a seed in their mind that attitude does not control medical outcome. Oftentimes people seem to ignore what is said, so it does not threaten them now. Yet the notion may in fact be stored in the recesses of their mind to become useful in their future.
If you decide you should say something, you still have to take care to find healing ways to share what you want to share. Because your attempt to plant a seed might push them away from you, which makes you less available to help from then on.
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