Helping the parents of children with malignancy

The parents of children with cancer experience a uniquely stressful situation that poses a profound threat to the equilibrium of the entire family. As health professionals, we recognize, with the parents, that this is a crisis and an ordeal, but that it can be resolved; we mobilize them to broaden their understanding of their situation and find constructive solutions to the problems that develop. For our patients with good prognoses, we hope to ensure a future for the whole family that is as healthy emotionally as it is physically; for those who become fatally ill, we hope to help their families support them and emerge from this experience with new adaptive abilities. Our group program is open to parents of patients who have various diagnoses, with a format that is unstructured and focuses on problems of daily living as well as the possibility of death. We have found that this is an effective approach for the delivery of mental health services to our growing population, early in the course of treatment, and for the identification of families that need ongoing counseling. Our experience with the large number of parents who have participated demonstrates that the program provides the support that the parents need and that it plays a vital role in resolving the problems that confront them as they struggle with this very difficult experience.