The Influence Of Hope On The Child With A Chronic Illness

Chronic Hope helps parents of children living with chronic disease gain practical wisdom for managing the emotional stress of raising a chronically ill child, so they can navigate these challenges with grace, courage, and love.

Chronic Hope helps parents of children living with chronic disease gain practical wisdom for managing the emotional stress of raising a chronically ill child, so they can navigate these challenges with grace, courage, and love.

For those who care for chronically ill children, a new understanding of hope that equips adults to better nurture pediatric hope among sick kids—articulated by the children themselves As anyone with a chronic illness knows, hope can sometimes be hard to come by. For parents and caregivers of children with serious illness, there can be a real struggle to move beyond one's own grief, fear, and suffering to see what hope means for these kids. Duane Bidwell, a scholar, minister, and former hospital chaplain who has struggled with serious illness himself, spent time with 48 chronically ill children in dialysis units and transplant clinics around the United States. Chronically ill kids, he found, don’t adhere to popular or scholarly understandings of hope. They experience hope as a sense of well-being in the present, not a promise of future improvement, an ability to set goals, or the absence of illness and suffering. With this mindset, these kids suggest a new understanding of pediatric hope, saying hope becomes concrete when they (1) realize community, (2) claim power, (3) attend to Spirit, (4) choose trust, and (5) maintain identity. Offering textured portraits of children with end-stage kidney disease, After the Worst Day Ever illustrates in their words how sick children experience, maintain, and turn toward hope even when illness cannot be cured and severely limits quality of life. Their insights reveal how the adults in a sick child's world—parents, chaplains, medical professionals, teachers, and others—can nurture hope. They also shift our understanding of hope from an internal resource located “inside” an individual to a shared, communal experience that becomes a resource for individuals. Rich and moving, Bidwell’s work helps us imagine anew what it means to sustain hope despite inescapable suffering and the limits of chronic illness.

Silver Medal for Parenting in the Independent Publishers Awards "This is an outstanding book that addresses the challenges of chronic disease in children from multiple viewpoints with a great deal of practical knowledge. Given that Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood, this work will serve to guide families in navigating the sometimes challenging journey to ensure the best possible outcomes for all." - Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association Written by leading mental health professionals, this warm and accessible parenting book for children with chronic illnesses offers clear, practical guidance for all aspects of the journey. When you’re focused on ensuring your child gets the best possible treatments for their symptoms, it’s easy to overlook or dismiss the impact the illness can have on your relationships and emotions. This book places your psychological well-being front and center, so you can be the best caregiver possible for your child.

This book explores the social conditions that promote pediatric resilience. It presents resilience as a set of complex interpersonal, institutional, and political relationships that affect young patients’ ability to “do well” in the face of medical adversity. Chapters analyze the impact of chronic or disabling conditions on children’s development, while highlighting effective interventions that promote family well-being. This book integrates research from psychology, social work, medical anthropology, child life specialty, palliative care, public health, and nursing to examine a wide variety of family, cultural, and medical contexts. Practical strategies for supporting children and families are discussed, from meaningful assessment and interventions to social policy and advocacy. Featured topics include: Psychosocial factors influencing children with immune-related health conditions. Resilience and pediatric cancer survivorship within a cultural context. Promoting resilience in chronically ill children and their families during the transition to adolescence. Creating a context for resilience in medical settings. Promoting resilience through children’s health and social care policy. Child and Adolescent Resilience Within Medical Contexts is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and other professionals, as well as graduate students in child and school psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, pediatrics, medical anthropology, nursing, educational psychology and policy.

Does your child have a health condition which requires special medical or dietary care? Whatever the health issue, you will learn the essential parenting skills you need to help your child comply with medical requirements, cope well with health challenges, and live a hope-filled life. Get practical and compassionate answers to your toughest questions as you discover effective ways to communicate about medical issues with children of all ages. This book will teach you how to: . Encourage your child to love life despite health challenges. . Handle refusal to take medication and do medical treatments. . Skillfully respond to your child's special emotional needs. . Avoid power struggles and other common parenting traps. . Promote responsibility without nagging or lecturing. . Navigate sibling, family and couple relationship issues. . Enable your child to make good self-care decisions.

From literature, history, film study, philosophy, social work, theology, pedagogy, psychology, gender studies, and music, hope is here. If you find hope important, this volume is essential.