When relaying the difficult news of a cancer diagnosis to kids, it's important to give them time to process the information, says Elizabeth Farrell, a clinical social worker at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
"The worst thing that can happen is that a kid finds out about their parent's illness from somebody else," she said.She often encourages people to choose a comfortable space such as at home,"not in a space where kids may not feel like they can react or respond in a way they want to or need to," she said.
She also says it is important to remind the child that the best information they can receive is from the parents themselves, and not from the Internet —"Saying to kids, 'So, if you are looking it up, please come to me with things that you are finding or things that you are worried about,'"she said.
Farrell says to then give the child some space to react, to sit back and ask"What questions do you have?," and to ensure them they can come back with any extra questions they may have in the future.We're going to keep checking in about this and we'll keep updating you as things happen. The most important thing is we're still a family and we are going to continue to be the same family, we just have something hard going on right now.
That's not what's happening right now. If at any point we need to be worried about that, my doctors will let me know, and we will let you know.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: FoxNews - 🏆 9. / 87 Read more »
Source: TODAYshow - 🏆 389. / 55 Read more »