Communicating with Children Facing Serious Illness

Catalog description

Social workers often play a crucial role in supporting and educating children facing serious illness in a variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, community organizations and social services. Optimizing communication using age appropriate language is crucial in supporting short-term coping and long-term mental health and developmental outcomes. Employing cultural humility is critical in understanding individual and family needs with regards to language, medical literacy and information sharing norms. Family systems theory and psychosocial development theory are used to guide assessment of communication needs. The crisis intervention model, play therapy, resiliency and coping model and bio-psycho-social-spiritual assessment models are drawn upon to best understand individual and family needs at various points throughout the illness trajectory. The objectives of this course are a) to incorporate theories and supporting evidence regarding children’s needs across the developmental spectrum and throughout the disease process b) to identify relevant psychological, social, organizational, cultural and developmental perspectives related to communication with children about serious illness from diagnosis and into bereavement, c) to introduce assessment and intervention tools for engaging with this population. Pedagogical tools will include PowerPoint lectures, in-depth class discussions and experiential learning opportunities such as role play and case discussions. Clinical and professional communication skills will be practiced and evidenced based practices will be emphasized.