Rekindle: testing an online resource to promote sexual wellbeing for both cancer patients and their partners

After consenting, participants will log into the Rekindle web intervention. Participants will be asked a series of questions that will determine their unmet needs and inform what of the available content is appropriate to each participant (the assessment battery). At this stage, participants will also be randomly assigned to one of the three study conditions: Rekindle, Rekindle Plus, and Attention Control. Patients and their partners may elect to complete Rekindle together or separately. The content covered by the intervention includes psycho-education about sex, sexuality, cancer and side effects of cancer, principles of cognitive behavioural therapy, communication skills training, medical and non-medical treatments for diminished sexual function, mindfulness, sensate focus, and strategies for maintenance of skills. Participants in the Rekindle and Rekindle Plus conditions will then complete the exercises determined as most appropriate by their responses to the Assessment Battery. These exercises are completed sequentially at whatever pace and intervals that best suit individual participants. The intervention is estimated to take 10 weeks, although this will vary depending on each participant's identified needs. The exercises may include reading written text, watching videos and animations, and completing quizzes. Participants will be able to indicate whether or not they want to have more information at the end of each topic. Participants will repeat the Assessment Battery at 10 weeks and six months after they commenced the intervention. Participants in the Rekindle Plus condition will receive three phone calls across the intervention to encourage their ongoing participation with the aim of heightening engagement with Rekindle by providing added support. The calls will be made by trained Cancer Council supportive care staff within one week of joining the study, mid-way through each participant’s program, and at the end of each participant’s program. The content of the intervention will be available to the participants in the Rekindle and Rekindle Plus conditions indefinitely after their completion of their program. Adherence to the program will be tracked by the back-end of the study website.