Psycho-oncology
The treatment of a child with cancer has a major impact on the entire family. Parents are also concerned about their other children, school, work, and their financial situation. That is why we support families with a team consisting of child life specialists, medical social workers, and medical psychologists.
Child life specialist
Child life specialists are involved from the time of diagnosis. They explain examinations, procedures, and treatments to the child and parents. They help prepare children for procedures and support parents in taking on this guidance themselves. Child life specialists also provide advice on parenting challenges in the context of childhood cancer and on how to support siblings and others in the child’s environment.
Medical social worker
Medical social workers are involved with families from the time of diagnosis. Based on screening, they assess family resilience and burden and determine the type of support needed. Their guidance focuses on stabilizing the family system in an extremely uncertain and demanding situation. This includes socio-emotional, systemic and practical support.
At the end of treatment, they work with parents to identify appropriate support within their local community. In consultation with parents, medical social work also provides bereavement support after a child’s death. In this way, they contribute to continuity and integrated care throughout the entire treatment trajectory.
Medical (neuro)psychologist
Cancer significantly affects the quality of life of both the child and the family. Most families are able to adapt to the new situation, but some experience difficulties. Psychologists provide support for psychological concerns as well as behavioral and learning problems. Children with a brain tumor routinely meet with a neuropsychologist. If needed, the psychologist ensures appropriate referral and handover to a psychologist closer to the family’s home.
KLIK
To systematically assess and monitor the quality of life of children and parents, online questionnaires are used through the KLIK (Quality of Life in Clinical Practice) portal. These questionnaires, Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), are used in direct patient care and also provide valuable data for quality monitoring and scientific research.