Therapeutic Support Groups
 
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Emotional, social and psychological support from Tomorrows Children's Fund

Coping with a life-threatening illness like cancer or a serious blood disorder is an overwhelming challenge for even the most courageous children and their loved ones. At Tomorrows Children's Fund, we understand the enormous strain these diseases place on families and provide emotional, social and psychological support to relieve it.

Child Life/Creative Arts Therapy Services

Our Child Life/Creative Arts Therapy team integrates multiple aspects of children's creative expressions to help them better understand, communicate and cope with their illness. Encompassing child life services, dance/movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy, this program gives children a non-threatening way to express their thoughts and feelings from the time of diagnosis through the entire course of treatment.

Services include:

  • Outpatient creative arts therapy groups—featuring art, music and dance therapy—for children and siblings of all ages.
  • Inpatient creative arts and child life therapy for individuals and groups.
  • Preparation for medical procedures and help with other treatment related concerns.
  • Intensive individual therapy aimed at helping children adjust throughout the course of treatment.
  • Developmentally based creative arts therapy evaluation.

Social Work Services

Our social work team is also committed to helping families cope with the stress of these diseases. Beginning at diagnosis, the social worker follows children and their loved ones across treatment settings-from the hospital to the outpatient clinic to the community-linking them to other medical teams in the hospital and helping each family member meet the challenges a life-threatening illness brings. Our social work program features:

  • Individual counseling for parents regarding the impact of the illness on the family.
  • Outpatient support groups geared to the different ages and needs of family members.
  • Inpatient support groups.
  • Bereavement group for parents and other family members of children who have succumbed to these diseases.
  • Referrals to other professionals on the psychosocial team.

Psychological Services

Sometimes families facing cancer and serious blood disorders require support that goes beyond that offered by our Child Life/Creative Arts team and social workers. To meet this need, Tomorrows Children's Fund also provides psychological services from doctoral-trained, state licensed professionals on a consultative basis to children and their loved ones. These encompass:

  • Psychological assessment and diagnosis.
  • Individual and family psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavior. models, insight oriented therapy and hypnotherapy.
  • Pain and symptom management.
  • Consultation with other members of the psychosocial team.

Together, these psychosocial services from Tomorrows Children's Fund comprise a comprehensive support plan for those struggling to cope with the issues surrounding childhood cancer and serious blood disorders. And always, our goal is to help children and families find the strength they need to accept, understand and fight these diseases.
 
 
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