What we do
Patients and families working through health issues generally must focus considerable time and energy on illness, treatment, and the web of medical professionals. However, there are so many additional factors to the biomedical aspects that impact the reality of health and illness; psychological, social, financial, and emotional experiences are paramount in the ways in which children and families adjust to health issues and the ways in which individual and family identities become navigated in light of illness. Social Work programs and services are geared towards the concerns of the total family to the situation which brings them to the Hospital. Individual, couple, family, and group support services are provided.
Social workers can assist children and families in:
- Making personal and medical decisions
- Developing a healthy productive relationship with the medical teams
- Addressing issues and concerns related to illness and hospitalization as it impacts the patient and family
- Addressing problems at school or with other children that arise as a result of the medical condition.
- A child's and family's adjustment to illness and treatment.
- Support during around issues of stress and coping
- Parenting issues and concerns about other children.
- Family conflict which affects ability to cope.
- Understanding and expressing complex emotions
- Working through feelings of grief and loss
- Financial difficulties created by child's illness or stay in hospital.
- Concerns for potential risk of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.
- Concerns about communication with the health care team.
- Advocacy in hospital and in the community.
- Finding and accessing resources and information
- Negotiating family roles and responsibilities
- Mediating between and helping strengthen family systems
- Follow-up support for children and families while at home This section contains information and details about the specific services available to patients and families.