The Well Being Of Children Impacted By A Parent With Cancer

It’s astonishing how one diagnosis can completely alter the life of a family. One day you’re looking to move into the fancy houses along the coast, and the next you’re forced to consider if you would be able to afford the same home with one income. When I was three years old my mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer. I was too young to know what was happening, but at the age of seven, when my mom was diagnosed for the second time, I began to notice a change in my family’s daily life. I was told not to sit on my mom’s lap and that she could not play with me as much as usual due to her Chemotherapy, but it was not until her third time contracting cancer that I noticed the pain she was in. I was fourteen when I finally learned about the very thing I had been trying to figure out for nearly my entire life. This burden has solely shaped the way I act and how I handle life’s many challenges, but how it accomplished this was not always a joyous experience.

‘“Cancer is like a home invasion, once it has invaded your life you will never feel safe again”’ (Adal yn's... 6). Cancer wipes out what a family knew before cancer; it wipes out their version of normal and replaces it with something that can not be controlled. When childhood cancer takes a hold of the family and never lets go. While going through cancer, it is important that a family sticks together and builds each other up through this difficult time. Childhood cancer affects everyone it comes in contact with, but it mainly affects the family, including the child suffering from cancer, as well as the parents or caregiver and siblings.

Cancer has one of the biggest effects on the patients mental health but also the patients loved ones and friends. It is one of the hardest things to get a grip on when the doctor tells someone that they have cancer and a fifty-fifty chance of making it. "The disease can bring many changes-in what people do and how they look, in how they feel and what they value" (Dakota 4). It makes people look at the world and their lives in a different way, valuing now what they took for granted and seeing the bigger picture in every scenario. It is something that no one can actually brace, even after the doctor tells them. Through it all though, the person must remain strong and optimistic because the cancer can affect the person's moods and in return affect the outcome of the person and the chances of their making it

Not only does cancer diagnosis affect the cancer patient, it affects everybody in their life. The feeling you have can be overwhelming for everybody in the family. One of the greatest effects of cancer can be your marriage(4). You experience so much anger, anxiety, and sadness. In some cases, it can make you have a stronger relationship with your wife or husband. You also can bet you will see a change in your childs’ behavior. Young children are used to getting all of the attention. When they aren’t getting attention due to one of the parents being sick, they will act out. It can make the older children realize and appreciate the sick parents more. It’s very important to talk with your children about what is happening in the family with the cancer diagnosis, and how important they are to one another. You and your family members may need to get therapy to help deal with everything you are going throught. It can put a strain on all your relationships. It is exhaustion, physically, mentally, and

Four families are told their child has cancer each day in Australia. Their lives are turned upside down. Redkite charity offers help and support for families and children going through this challenging journey. It provides the essential support through:

Family caregivers struggle with tensions and dilemmas during a period in which their whole life changes dramatically. Research has documented the effect that the patient's cancer has on the emotional, physical, social, and spiritual well being of the caregiver. This increased responsibility for the caregiver can come at great cost to the overall functioning of the entire family, because of role alterations, changes in the family structure, and financial stressors, among others. There also is a physical, emotional, and financial toll associated with caregiving. Caregivers can experience adverse effects on their mental and physical health that can remain long after the caregiving role has

The causes of cancer are nothing compared to the effects it has on the person’s body and the person’s family. The effects of cancer are very different for everyone, they change the person socially, physically and emotionally. Cancer has many effects on the human body, they include: physical body changes, nausea and vomiting and the most serious effect is death. Cancer can also effect the people around them in many ways, most families have to change their lifestyles to perform the needs of the cancer patient, when a death happens to occur that really affects the family, and lastly a family’s emotional state changes as well. Cancer has many effects on the patient and their families.

Cancer is Chronic disease in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems (NCI, 2013). Breast cancer in particular affects both women and men, though our focus is on Ella Miller who is the heart of the Miller family. Ella has been battling cancer for years now and even though she went into remission, the cancer has returned. This Situation is affecting her view on life and well as her family view on life with and without her. The purpose of this paper is to inform and introduce factual background of breast cancer, medical treatment options, suggestions of coping with this illness for the family and Ella as well as an outlook regarding the micro, macro and mezzo influences of the patient and family. This paper will educate Ella and her family on lifespan development and outcomes pertaining to breast cancer.

The authors MacKinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Korner, Chochinov, and Cohen (2016) revealed a receipt of the several financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article. The Canadian institute of Health Research (CIHR) studentship to the main author: the CIHR/Canadian Cancer Society Stratiegic Training Program in Palliative Care Research and the Family Caregiving at End of Life New Emerging Team (Mackinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Cohen, 2016).

Ph.D. degree acquired authors, Ronald L. Blount, Ronald T. Brown, and Natalie C. Frank, conducted a study focused on predictors of the overall psychological adjustment in children who are battling cancer. They concentrated on anxiety and depression levels and how the child externalizes behavior. There were 83 children who participated in this study of ages ranging from 7 to 18 years. After obtaining parental and child consent, the researchers proceeded to give each

Coping with a parent being seriously ill or the death of a parent can be extremely hard for children. They go through the feelings of loneliness, depression, and grief. When children are a witness to an ill parent or a deceased parent it causes an extreme amount of stress according to Buchwald, Delmar, & Schantz-Laursen (2011). Buchwald et al., (2011) also mentions that children may lose a sense of security when confronting a parent’s illness or death. Because of this, the child’s relationships are changed dramatically as well. The child must reestablish a relationship with the “healthier” parent since the other may be seriously ill or deceased. Like Buchwald, Koblenz (2015) also believes that maintaining a healthy relationship with the surviving or “healthier” parent will ultimately produce more positive results for the child that is coping.

Each year, approximately 12.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately that number is not decreasing. My sister, Caitlin, was a part of that statistic 12 years ago, and to say her Ewing’s Sarcoma changed not only her life, but also my family’s would be an understatement. As a child, witnessing the deterioration of my sister’s health and the my family’s normalcy ultimately shaped me into the person I am today; a person that welcomes change with a resilient nature built on a foundation to never quit. I am blessed to say that my sister is flourishing and her cancer has been in remission and upon meeting her today, one would have no idea she ever endured such a relentless disease. Nevertheless in the past two years, my mother

According to the parents, physicians mainly focused on the physical symptoms of the child. Most of the psychological symptoms of both the child and the parent were not acknowledged by health professionals (Theunissen et al., 2007). Despite this result, there have been substantial research conducted to create measures that can gauge the quality and effect of palliative care mostly for adults. However, data collected from these studies may be applied to interventions created to help children with cancer.

Childhood cancer takes a tremendous toll on a family in general. It can be absolutely catastrophic without knowledge of the various strategies and coping tools successfully used by other families with histories of childhood cancer. Every year over 3,500 children are diagnosed with cancer (Yoak, 38). The news is devastating to a family. They are faced with a life altering event and the difficult task of helping the child understand what is happening to their bodies. No doubt the doctors and hospital staff will be able to facilitate most of the explanations of the diagnosis and treatment plan. However, I would like to enlighten the readers of this paper about the coping mechanisms utilized by many families to help them to survive this illness.

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a