Strategies of Intervention with Families of Pediatric Leukemia Patients

As part of a longitudinal research study, families of children with leukemia were provided with a psychosocial intervention program over a two-year period. This paper describes the approaches used at specific times during the illness: diagnosis and initial treatment, early outpatient treatment, later outpatient treatment, remission, relapse, and death. The goals of the intervention strategies were to facilitate: an understanding of the realities of the illness; management of emotional distress; and utilization of resources to care for the child, attend to other responsibilities, and support and communicate with one another.