Psychosocial Program

Program overview

A childhood cancer diagnosis can be stressful for the whole family including your child, siblings, caregivers and other family members. The many changes ahead can be overwhelming, confusing and can lead to mental health struggles. This program provides a variety of supports and mental health resources for your family from the time of diagnosis including:

• Adolescent Medicine Physicians works with teen patients on issues specific to their needs including mental and social stresses, fertility and body image.
• Child Life Specialists play a unique part in your child’s care, helping them cope with stress and anxiety during their treatment through a creative blend of care/therapy including art, music and play-based activities 
• Expressive Art Therapists use a variety of creative arts as a form of therapy to allow patients to express themselves through painting, music and song.
• Interlink Community Nurses provide a valuable link between hospital, home life and community for you and your child including helping to build support systems to help your child be successful at school during their cancer treatment. 
• Psychiatrists support patients with clinically significant emotional distress and can diagnose and treat mental health conditions that may or may not be related to their cancer journey.
• Psychologists provide specialized mental health and learning supports. As part of the oncology team, clinical and health psychologists provide evidence-based assessment and treatment for behavioural, cognitive, and emotional challenges associated with a child or adolescent’s cancer experience. Intervention is tailored to promote coping and adjustment at the time of diagnosis, throughout treatment, and after treatment. Neuropsychology works to identify and asses any learning or memory challenges and assist in developing strategies and educational supports to maximize a child’s potential.
• Resource Navigators provide support to SickKids patients and parents who need community information and help to apply for resources to address their health-care related costs, as well as other specific needs.
• Social Workers focus on helping meet emotional, social, financial, and practical needs that may arise throughout the cancer journey.  We work at the intersection of health and mental health, providing a variety of interventions to help you and your family cope through the cancer journey.

Message from program leadership

Our goal is to help ease the emotional, psychological, emotional and everyday impact of the cancer journey on patients and families. Along with individual supports, our dedicated inter-professional team is working to deliver targeted supports and programming to prevent and reduce the incidence of mental health challenges and improve overall coping and quality of life for the whole family.

– David Brownstone, Garron Family Psychosocial Program Lead, Social Worker & Dr. Sarah Alexander, Murphy Psychosocial Program Medical Director.