Supporting children of terminally ill adults: An arts-based psychoeducational narrative approach

Children facing the loss of a significant adult hospitalized with serious illness face the task of reconciling life changing circumstances incurred by the impending death of the significant adult figure. Despite the family centered philosophy of many hospitals, the needs of these children are often relegated to secondary consideration resulting in concrete interventions focused on product or legacy devoid of the psychotherapeutic support that is essential to profound meaning making. This article explicates and endorses a clinical approach fostering inclusion and authentic communication through developmentally targeted psychoeducation as fundamentally precursory to legacy work. Retrospective thematic analysis coding of unsolicited feedback received from 178 families for whom 370 children and teens were served by our program, was conducted to identify actionable recommendations or confirmation that the program is worthwhile or helpful. Analysis revealed aesthetic framing, gratitude, inclusion, and relationship completion as favorable outcomes suggesting that such narrative therapy in the early stages of diagnosis and treatment can be of optimal benefit to both the child(ren) and families with informational groundbreaking essential to anticipatory grief, and healthy bereavement.