Enhancing Connections
A program to help the mother with breast cancer support her child

Helping Her Heal
A program for spouses of women with breast cancer

Family Functioning Research Team

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Family Functioning Research Team:

Ellen Zahlis, MN

Ellen Zahlis, MN, has been a member of the Family Functioning in Chronic Illness research team for 16 years. Her current position is as Project Manager for Intervention for the studies: Enhancing Connections: Helping the Mother with Breast Cancer Help her Child, Helping Her Heal, a pilot study for men with a wife with breast, and Easing the Mother's Experience with the Mother's Breast Cancer: A volunteer based program. In addition to her work as manager, she is also a program designer for intervention studies. Her clinical research and community practice focus on the individual and family experience with cancer. She is Associate Director of Program for Cancer Lifeline where she is a Family Consultant for families living with cancer.

Her publications include:

1990 Shands, M.E., & Zahlis, E.H. Families and illness. In W.J. Phipps, B.C. Long, N.F. Woods, & V.L. Cassmeyer (Eds.), Medical-surgical nursing concepts and clinical practice, 4th edition, (pp. 121-131). St. Louis, MO: C.V. Mosby

1991 Zahlis, E.H., & Shands, M.E. Breast cancer: Demands of illness on the partner. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 9(1), 75-93.

1993 Zahlis, E.H., & Shands, M.E. The impact of breast cancer on the partner eighteen months following diagnosis. Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 9(2), 83-37.

1996 Lewis, F.M., Zahlis, E.H. Shands, M.E., Sinsheimer, J.A., & Hammond, M.A. The functioning of single women with breast cancer and their school-aged children. Cancer Practice, 4(1), 1-10.

1997 Lewis, F.M. & Zahlis, E.H. The nurse as coach: A conceptual framework for clinical practice. Oncology Nursing Forum, 26, 1695-1702.

1998 Zahlis, E.H., & Lewis, F.M. The mother's story of the school age child's experience with the mother's breast cancer. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 16(2), 25-43.

2000 Shands, M.E., Lewis, F.M. & Zahlis, E.H. Mother and child interactions about the mother's breast cancer: An interview study. Oncology Nursing Forum., 27(1), pp. 77-85.

2000 Lewis, F.M., Behar, L.C., Anderson, K.H., Zahlis, E.H., Darby, E. & Sinsheimer, J. Blowing away the myths about the child's experience with the mother's breast cancer. In L. Baider, C.K. Cooper, and A. Kaplan De-Nour (Eds), Cancer and the Family, 2nd edition, (pp. 201-221). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2001 Zahlis, E.H. The child's worries about the mom's breast cancer: Sources of distress in school-age children." Oncology Nursing Forum, 28 (6), pp. 1019-1025.

2003 Lewis, F.M., Cochrane, B., Zahlis, E. and Casey, S. Enhancing the single woman's adjustment to breast cancer: A pilot intervention study. Under review.

2003 Lewis, F.M., Casey, S.M, Brandt, P.A., Shands, M.E., and Zahlis, E.H. A pilot study of the Enhancing Connections Program: Helping families with breast cancer. Under review.

UW School of Nursing