For more than fifteen years, the Children's Bereavement Center of San Antonio has counseled kids after the most horrible development that can affect the life of a child has occurred--the death of a parent. Now, 1200 WOAI News reports, in conjunction with San Antonio's START Center for Cancer Care and an innovative program called Wolders & Worries, the Bereavement Center is taking on a new challenge, counseling children whose parents are suffering from a terminal disease.
"About 25% of the Children's Bereavement Center's losses are anticipatory," said Meredith Cooper, the co-founder of Wonders & Worries, which uses a special curriculum to help kids deal with the toughest questions imaginable, like 'why can't daddy give me piggyback rides any more,' or 'why does mommy say she won't be there for my birthday.'
"That means, that a family knows that death is coming for their family member."
She says fully 80% of deaths of young adults who are at the age to have small children are from cancer, so the START Center will host the classes at it's facilities in the Medical Center.
She says the service will be available free of charge to all children who are undergoing this horrible condition, not just those with a parent with cancer, and not just to patients of the START Center.
She says the Wonders & Worries curriculum includes what she calls 'medical play,' to make children better understand the medical condition the parent is suffering. They have things like a 'mini MRI machine' and a plush doll with a brain tumor, to help them understand.
"The START Center reached out to the Children's Bereavement Center, with a desire to provide that kind of support for patient's families," Cooper said.
Wonders & Worries has been active in Austin for some time, and this will be its first program offred in the San Antonio area.
She say the goal is to 'make sure children and teens can continue to thrive despite a parent's illness.'The program is available, free of charge, to kids up to 18 years old.