Cancer treatment is very stressful experience that can overwhelm a teenager’s natural ability to cope.
The emotional trauma teenagers experience can delay healing and normal development. The negative effects on physical and mental health may last for years after treatment has ended.
Child life promotes effective coping for teenagers.
Developmental Issues
- Needs privacy
- Socialising is important
- Rapidly changing body image
- Struggles to develop self-identity
- Body image relates to self-esteem
- Increasing independence and responsibility
- Uses deductive reasoning and abstract thought
Hospital Stressors
- Lack of trust
- Fear of death
- Restricted physical activities
- Threat to bodily competence
- Threat to future competence
- Threat of change in body image
- Loss of independence and control
- Loss of peer acceptance and/or fear of rejection
Coping Behaviours
- Conformity
- Intellectualization
- Defence mechanisms
- Uncooperative behaviour
Interventions
- Be honest
- Allow peers to visit
- Respect and maintain privacy
- Address long-term issues in follow-up
- Involve adolescent in care and decisions
- Discuss potential psychological and physical changes
- Provide opportunity for follow-up discussion and guidance as needed
Pain Management / Comforting Techniques
- Music
- Videos/DVDs
- Humour/Jokes
- Deep breathing
- Guided Imagery
- Writing personal journal
- Encouraging statements