When Your Child Is Sick: A Guide to Navigating the Practical and Emotional Challenges of Caring for a Child Who is Very Ill

Description

'Warm, wise and practical' Cressida Cowell, MBE An invaluable reference for parents of sick or hospitalised children by an experienced and eminent psychologist. To many parents, it is hard to imagine a more upsetting reality than one where their child is hospitalised, severely sick, or terminally ill. In When Your Child is Sick, psychologist Joanna Breyer distils decades of experience working with sick children and their families into a comprehensive guide for navigating the uncharted and frightening terrain. She provides expert advice to guide them through the hospital setting, at-home care, and long-term outcomes. Breyer's actionable techniques and direct advice will help parents feel more in-control of a circumstance that has upended their life. She alerts parents to key personnel in the hospital, gives dialogue prompts to help parents ask for the help they need, addresses the needs of their other children at home, offers advice on how to best utilise friends and family who want to help, includes stories from other families who have been there, and teaches coping techniques to help both parents and children weather the stress of prolonged illness and even death. When Your Child is Sick is a valuable guide to managing the myriad practical and emotional complications of an impossible situation.

Joanna Breyer was educated at Oxford and Harvard where she got her psychology doctoral degree in 1983. As a psychologist she worked with children with cancer and their families for over 25 years at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Children's Hospital Boston. She worked in the David B. Perini Quality of Life Clinic for Survivors of Childhood Cancer for over 10 years. She is married to Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

NFAA Book Award Winner -- Gold Award Joanna Breyer balances profound compassion with pragmatism to provide an extraordinarily valuable guide to the management and care of sick children... This book should be compulsory reading for anyone facing these terrifying conundrums and life-altering decisions. - Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer', winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and 'The Laws of Medicine', assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University [This book] is a wonder. I stand in awe at how comprehensive it is in guiding parents through maintaining confidence and alleviating fear during what can be an extremely challenging experience. A great clinician, [Joanna Breyer] is above all an inspired teacher who provides a treasure trove of advice for those facing the greatest fear parents have-that of losing a child. - David G. Nathan, President Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Physician-in-Chief Emeritus, Boston Children's Hospital, Robert A. Stranahan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School A compassionate, informative, and clear-eyed guide [that] lights the way for parents of children with cancer provides comfort during a confusing, shocking, and despairing time. - Nancy Goodman, Executive Director, Kids v Cancer This is definitely the book to read if you have a sick child... also an excellent guide for paediatric medical staff, who will learn working tools that improve the quality of their work and the quality of their patients lives. I recommend it without hesitation and wish I d had it earlier in my professional career. - Maria Die Trill, Ph.D., President, International Psycho-Oncology Society An incredibly important contribution for families with a child who has a serious illness. - Dr. Michael Yogman, Chief, Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics, Mt. Auburn Hospital, Harvard Medical School [Breyer] proves to be the expert friend and advocate everyone needs: informative, steady, sympathetic, and - if treatment fails - unflinching at the prospect of loss. - Harvard Magazine