April 5, 2011 GUEST BLOG POST by Joey Debernardis
Since cancer has such a huge impact on many people’s lives, I thought it would be a very important topic to talk about. More specifically, the study below considered how to talk to children about cancer. This specific study was done at ‘Three Principal Cancer Treatment’ in the United Kingdom.
The study was based of 38 participants at different levels of their cancer journey. The groups broke down as follows: young children (4-5 years), older children (6-12years), and young people (13-19 years).
Some of the results that were found were quite interesting. As a young child, the cancer patients were not able to voice their preferences. They just did not have the ability to do so. Children also worried about the permanence of symptoms. Older children were unhappy about their parents leading communications with the health professionals.
The children aged 4-12 years reside in the background of information sharing with health professionals until they gain autonomy as the young people (roughly 13 years). They then moved in a foreground, and their parents transition into a supportive background role. In this way, younger children begin to realize their abilities to voice their preferences. Parents and the professionals, in turn, can learn to develop their supportive background roles…
Gibson. F. (2010). Children and young people’s experiences of cancer care: a qualitative research study using participatory methods. Pubmed. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20430388
I agree with you on educating young kids about cancer because they do need to know what is going on with themselves. For kids to have a voice and be able to ask quesitons and even voicing their opinions on the subject matter is important. Knowing how a child feels or is even thinking about something like cancer can also open more ideas for how parents and doctors go about diagnosing the child. All together, in my eyes I think giving knowledge to childeren about cancer is very important to help open up the lines of communicaiton for all parties involved.