One of Friends of Karen’s strengths is meeting a family where they are and tailoring our support to their needs. Often that’s an opportunity to provide our expertise in new, creative ways. A perfect example of our creativity is how Jennifer, one of our Sibling Support Program professionals, worked with Michael in September 2023 when his little brother John was undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, a type of blood and bone marrow cancer.

Jennifer helped Michael understand his brother’s diagnosis and he was coping well after a few months of their work together. Jennifer also worked one-on-one with John and engaged in medical play and other interventions to prepare him to begin his immunotherapy treatment in the fall of 2024.

John and his twin brother Walter were in pre-kindergarten, and their mother MJ contacted Jennifer to ask if she would provide a presentation about his cancer to the boys’ four- and five-year-old classmates. John would be coming to school now with a special backpack for his immunotherapy treatment and MJ wanted the children to be prepared.

It was a presentation that the hospital where John was treated was asked to make but could not offer. As it happens, Jennifer, a certified Child Life Specialist with more than two decades of experience, was the perfect professional for this task. She is our team’s “go-to” professional to explain a complicated medical diagnosis and treatment. So, Jennifer leaped at the chance to spend time with John, Walter, and their classmates to help them understand John’s illness and treatment.

Jennifer’s session with the boys’ pre-K class included illness education at their developmental level. Jennifer explained what cells are and how they work together in the body to keep us healthy. She read the class a children’s book called “My PICC Line” to teach them about John’s central line, a flexible tube used to deliver intravenous treatment. The class colored in a picture of a llama getting an intravenous treatment and used medical play with dolls dressed in hospital scrubs. They had a chance to “treat” their tiny patients with toy stethoscopes, thermometers, and needles to understand what John faced in the hospital.

Then Jennifer led the class in a project using Legos to build and model healthy blood cells working together. The children were encouraged to add Play-Doh to their constructions to represent how leukemia cells interfere with blood cells working properly. Then the children could remove the Play-Doh, so the blood cells work correctly again. Jennifer invited John to the front of the room at the end of her classroom visit to review what they had learned. It was also an opportunity to remind John’s classmates to be gentle with him during treatment. They were reassured he could play with them and get high-fives but wrestling with him and grabbing his treatment backpack and medicine were off-limits.

“The kids were engaged, and it was a great way for John to feel confident and comfortable about being at school while receiving his continuous immunotherapy infusion,” Jennifer noted. “It helped normalize him wearing his backpack with his medication while at school and his classmates could share their experiences of going to the doctor.”