Talking to the parents or family of a child with a serious illness can be nerve-racking and uncomfortable. Sometimes avoiding the family can seem easier than facing a difficult situation.
What if you say the wrong thing?
When parents hear the news that their child has a life threatening or terminal illness, their whole world may feel like it’s falling apart.
Everything changes. Their reality implodes in front of them. These parents have been told the worst things one can ever hear.
If anything, this is the most significant time in parents’ lives where they and their family crave support, encouragement, and care.
Vision and Values
There are organizations that provide a range of support to parents from diagnosis through treatment and beyond. They support the whole family, both emotionally and practically, including siblings and grandparents.
Organizations like Very Special Kids—who is celebrating the opening of their new care center in Bendingo, Australia with this press release.
Very Special Kids maintains close contact with the family and friends in the midst of their crisis.
Take Natalie Watson, who’s the mother of two sons who suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a form of muscular dystrophy. It worsens quickly. There is no known cure, and treatment aims to control symptoms to improve quality of life.
As Natalie and her family grapple with this change, they have been uplifted by the care center support:
“Very Special Kids has been supportive of me and my family.”
Many of these children and their families are able to cope or are not in a ‘crisis situation.’ However, thousands of families have to face the very real possibility that their child may die and struggle to cope on a day to day basis.
Thus, Very Special Kids offers diversified services to fit the needs of these families:
- Counseling and emotional support
- Bereavement support
- Sibling support
- Family services volunteers
- Regional services
- Children’s hospice
Very Special Kids was established in 1985, and they now have more than 50 staff and 350 volunteers to support these children and families through the hardest time of their lives.
If you and your family have been looking for a really good way to get to know other people and have someone to talk to when you need help, consider easing the stress of illness by finding a center like Very Special Kids.
