Helping Children With Cancer Go Back To School

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 20 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PST

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A one-day free conference dedicated to educating teachers, nurses, social workers, guidance counselors, and other educators about the medical and educational issues that children with cancer encounter when returning to school, will take place on November 3, 2009, at the Wang Center at Stony Brook University. The 8th Annual "Educating the Educators" Conference will be run by professionals from the School Re-Entry Program at Stony Brook University Medical Center and the physicians and nurses of the Department of Pediatric Oncology.

Participants will acquire important information about childhood cancers and blood disorders, as well as receive instruction on how to be attuned to the special needs of children with cancer and make their transition back to school following treatment easier. Topics to be covered include overviews of common pediatric cancers and hematological disorders, common side effects of treatment, preparation for school re-entry, neurocognitive late effects of treatment, overview of educational law, and community resources.

This year's guest speaker is Erin Ley, author of The Will to Live: The Perks of Cancer Through the Eyes of a Survivor, a memoir and self-help book. For more than 15 years, Ms. Ley has dedicated herself as a life coach-cancer consultant for patients living with any type of cancer, their families and friends. A member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, Ms. Ley also serves on the Board of Directors for Strength for Life, a non-profit cancer organization.

The SBUMC School Re-Entry Program is the only one of its kind on Long Island. The program is a collaborative effort of Stony Brook physicians, nurses, child life specialists, and educational liaisons who work with school personnel to facilitate a child's return to the classroom. The Stony Brook team prepares each child before he/she returns to school, coordinates tutoring services, establishes open communication with the child's home school, and travels to the school to educate the child's fellow classmates about cancer and how they can support their classmate.

The School Re-Entry Program has received national media attention for its success, including a recent CNN television segment featuring a fifth grader with cancer from Long Island and how the program intervened with the student's educators in that process. This past summer a group of pediatric oncology nurses from a medical center in Japan visited SBUMC to learn more about the program in order to build a similar program in Japan.

Source: Stony Brook University Medical Center