Psychosocial Services & Support Programs
Psychology
Individual Psychology
Academic Activities
Testing Services
Psycho-educational Testing
Neuropsychological Testing
Support Groups
Parent Support Group
Off-Treatment Parent Support Group
Mothers of Maintenance Support Groups
Grandparent Support Group
Sibling Support Group
Kids Club
End-of-Life Supportive Program & Bereavement Groups
Programs
Off-treatment Program
"Been There, Done That" Lecture Series
Community Outreach
Child Life Program
Play Therapy
Music & Art Therapy
Horticultural Therapy
Social Work
Financial Issues
Project S.O.A.R.: School Re-Entry and Ongoing Academic Resources
Psychology
Individual Psychotherapy
The psychosocial team at Winthrop’s Cancer Center for Kids fosters a sense of hope and healing through fun, after-hours activities and a variety of therapeutic programs. By combining psychological assessment with consultations to the medical staff, the psychologists are able to create specific therapeutic and supportive interventions for each patient and his/her family. Each intervention is designed to help patients and their families adapt to a difficult situation.
Assessment at Diagnosis
The psychological relationship with the patient and family begins immediately at the time of diagnosis. Interventions at this stage are designed to help re-orient parents and to help them identify adaptive styles. Every attempt is made to create an environment where parents and patients can explore and express feelings and fears, develop trust in the medical staff, and provide hope for the future.
Initial Treatment
Psychological interventions at this stage most often involve conversations and play at the patient’s bedside, hospital playroom or clinic treatment room. Social workers, child life specialists and psychologists provide support to children through storytelling, guided imagery or “medical play.” Hypnotic suggestions, relaxation techniques and supportive therapy are all employed in an effort to comfort and empower the patient and his family.
Academic Activities
The Center psychologists and social worker coordinate and lead weekly interdisciplinary team meetings. These rounds provide a forum for all involved disciplines to coordinate the overall care of each patient and family. In addition, the psychologists are responsible for conducting clinical research and presenting the findings at professional conferences within the hospital and across the nation. Recent topics have included the impact of cancer on family cohesiveness; the efficacy of poetry and storytelling technique with critically ill children; parenting the chronically ill child; and school re-entry following an illness.
Testing
Psycho-educational and Personality Testing are provided to any and all patients in need of support in the school and at home. Administration of tests, write-up of a report, and feed-back to parents are all provided at no cost to the family.
Neuropsychological Testing is offered at the beginning of treatment to help achieve a baseline of the child’s cognitive, memory or learning skills. In addition, tests can be administered at the school re-entry level as well as at the maintenance level, once the child is off-treatment for two years. This helps map present and future concerns that may arise in the home, school, or work environment.
Support Groups
Parent Support Groups are offered to parents of children “on treatment,” as they provide a safe place for the expression of fear, anger or sadness, as well as hope and relief.
The Movement and Meditation Mixed with a Little Conversation support group for parents incorporates relaxation and deep breathing exercises with various gentle movements to help parents develop a sense of well-being and connectedness. Parents also have the opportunity to meet and explore issues with others who are going through similar experiences. Meets every other Wednesday evening 7:30 to 9 p.m. For more information, call Jayne Cohodas, Psy.D., at 516-663-9400.
Off-Treatment Parent Support Groups address parental concerns and anxieties once their child’s treatment has ended. Attention is primarily on the redefinition of the recovering family and their re-entry into life.
Mothers of Maintenance Support Groups will be made available for parents of children in the “maintenance” or middle phase of treatment. Medical education about the patient’s particular course of treatment, relaxation techniques and psychological support comprise the fundamental focus of this six-week discussion group.
Grandparent Support Groups are offered on an “as needed basis,” particularly when the patient population includes many grandparents who are in need of psychological support.
Sibling Support Groups are also made available on an “as needed” basis. Brothers and sisters of pediatric oncology patients are afforded the opportunity to express their fears, concerns and frustrations with the changes that cancer has made in their families. Facilitated by the psychosocial team, sibling support groups are organized by age and gender.
Kids Club is a support/activity group facilitated by the Social Worker and Child Life Specialist in our Center. The group is open to all patients, ages 9 – 16, whether they are on or off active treatment. Kids Club meets once each month for an evening of sharing and laughter, art, cooking, trips to Broadway musicals, and other events that foster creative expression. The goal of Kids Club is to normalize feelings related to diagnosis and/or treatment, and to help patients address fears about upcoming procedures, difficult days or events of interest. It also provides a fun outlet for teens to participate comfortably in peer activities and strengthen their social skills.
End of Life Support and Bereavement Groups are facilitated by the psychologist in situations where a cure is so remote that the patient and family must face the destructive power of the disease and the fading belief in a physical cure. Therapy at this stage involves difficult but tender discussions with parents about end-of-life decisions. All families who experience a death of a patient are offered continued psychological care. Bereavement counseling is made available, and outreach visits to the home are made so that parents and siblings can share the stories of their loved one during happier times.
Parent-to-Parent Outreach Support Groups are available for newly diagnosed families who are in search of straight talk from veteran “off-treatment” families. The Cancer Center utilizes a special training curriculum, accompanied by supervision from a Staff Psychologist and Nurse Clinician, to effectively prepare parents whose children have successfully completed treatment to become mentors.
Programs
Off-Treatment Program: Most patients successfully complete their cancer treatment, and this can be a time of celebration as well as a time of stress. Concerns about re-entry in school, fear of relapse, late effects of treatment and existential questions are all addressed at this time. Adolescents and their families who have completed treatment are often invited to join a structured family therapy group, the focus of which is to help all family members honor the illness that just ended and to find ways to “put it in its place.”
Been There, Done That is a lecture series led by former Cancer Center patients. These survivors share their insights and experiences during and after cancer treatment. This program demonstrates to current patients and their families that life indeed does exist after treatment for cancer is over.
Community Outreach: The psychosocial staff provides outreach to schools, churches, synagogues and mental health associations across Long Island and in Queens. The goal of this program is to offer expert guidance and support in the event of a serious illness or death in the community or in the school setting. Lectures on parenting, childhood grief and psycho-educational issues are also made available to PTA organizations throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. Support for the victims of high profile tragedies, such as the crash of TWA Flight 800, The September 11th attack on the Twin Towers, and hurricane survivors in New Orleans and Mississippi, are examples of critical incidents when our psychosocial staff makes itself available.
Child Life Program
With the generous support of the Miracle Foundation, the Child Life Program has expanded rapidly to address the psychosocial concerns that accompany health care experiences.
Through therapeutic play and other age-appropriate mechanisms, Child Life helps to meet the unique emotional and developmental needs of children and adolescents. Child life specialists promote effective coping through play, preparation, education, and self-expression activities. They provide emotional support for families, and encourage optimum development of children facing a broad range of challenging experiences. Our child life specialists provide information, support and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family members. Child Life aims to foster the growth of greater coping styles so that overnight hospital stays, clinic visits and medical procedures become less painful and frightening.
Child Life therapy interventions, such as medical play, distraction techniques, and coping techniques such as relaxation and visualization, offer children a great sense of familiarity, understanding and emotional mastery of a potentially threatening and scary situation. The activities we employ are particularly important for young children who are less able to express their feelings through words and dialogue. These activities include:
The Social Worker is available for the administration of concrete services and emotional support. She has contact with 100% of the patients and families treated in our Center and is, therefore, closely connected with the needs of each family. In addition, she actively works with patients in our Long Term Follow-Up Program, the only survivorship health program on Long Island where comprehensive follow-up care is delivered in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. All of the program’s resources are directed toward meeting the special needs of the survivors and his/her family.
The Social Worker is also an integral member of our school re-entry program which helps young patients return to a more “normal” and regular school schedule. The School Re-entry Team helps address the child's academic and social concerns and offers counseling to patients on a one-to-one basis, as well as through group meetings. (Please see below).
The S.O.A.R. Program: School re-entry and Ongoing Academic Resources
The Michael Magro Foundation Educational Program
Limited school resources and the rigors of a demanding curriculum make it almost impossible for educators to provide the individualized pre-and-post school re-entry support essential for a young student with cancer. To meet these compelling needs, Winthrop-University Hospital—thanks to a generous grant from the Michael Magro Foundation—has established the S.O.A.R. Program at its renowned Cancer Center for Kids (CCFK).
Children who are diagnosed and treated for cancer or cancer-related blood disorders are often unable to attend school for prolonged periods of time because their illnesses limit physical activity or place them at risk for infection. Offering psychosocial counseling and a helping hand to patients, families and educators, the S.O.A.R. Program is designed to give each child the chance to find happiness and success in an academic environment, whether that child is a CCFK patient or an ‘off treatment’ survivor.
As soon as a child is diagnosed, the Cancer Center for Kids secures parental consent, and contacts the child’s school to arrange for at-home tutoring. The Center’s team then educates the school staff--principal, nurse, classroom teacher and psychologist--about pediatric cancer and the child’s specific course of treatment.
When the patient is finally able to go back to school, the CCFK team may address the class to provide an overview of what to expect, and to answer any questions. This helps mitigate the child’s anxiety about returning to school, and diminishes the possibility of educational and social difficulties.
For children to thrive in school they need to feel comfortable and secure; a prolonged absence from the classroom often requires ongoing assistance to families as well as school staff. The S.O.A.R. team embraces the patient, the family, and the academic community, empowering the success of their collaborative effort. It is a mission the Cancer Center for Kids continues to foster with hope and healing.
The S.O.A.R. program provides the following:
