Counseling the chronically ill youth and their families

✍ Scribed by Walter L. Powers; Vali Hawkins-Edwards

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 321 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0653
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00156059

✦ Synopsis

Sufficient evidence is now available to demonstrate unequivocal links between family interaction and physical health of its members. Minuchin and Associates emphasize identification of current interactions in family structure that are specific for psychosomatic illnesses in their children . Current work by Lask and Mathews demonstrate improvement of asthmatic children following family counseling. Other studies show that the existence of family problems clearly related to the excerbation of some physical illnesses of youth in schools and hospitals. Distress in a child or adolescent or other family member leads to a growing body of evidence that some counseling intervention should be strongly considered in illnesses of childhood such as asthma, diabetes, and anorexia nervosa. All youth with chronic illness face periods of uncertainty, enforced role change, and repeated episodes of school absences, pain, and disability. In some families, the emergence of illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, and others represents a last straw in a previously fragile relationship.

The purpose of this study is to identify anxiety and stress factors in chronically ill youth and their family network. Questions to be considered here are: How significant is the anxiety component of the family members of the chronically ill youth? Are these needs being addressed by the current system of school counselors and mental health specialists? What are some of these needs? How do siblings of the chronically ill relate to their new role within the family structure? How does the chronically ill youth make adjustment to academic learning and social relations.

In the USA, one in 1700 caucasian children is born with Cystic Fibrosis. Between the ages of 10 and 14, 19 per 100,000 children develop Diabetes. In 1982, 150 children were registered at the Children's Orthopedic Hospital Tumor Registry in Seattle, Washington. Over 900 outpatient visits were recorded by the