When Your Child Is Sick: A Guide to Navigating the Practical and Emotional Challenges of Caring for a Child Who Is Very Ill

An invaluable reference for parents of sick or hospitalized children by an experienced psychosocial counselor.

To many parents, it is hard to imagine a more upsetting reality than one where their child is hospitalized, severely sick, or terminally ill. In When Your Child is Sick, psychosocial counselor Joanna Breyer distills decades of experience working with sick children and their families into a comprehensive guide for navigating the uncharted and frightening terrain. She provides expert advice to guide them through the hospital setting, at-home care, and long-term outcomes.

Breyer's actionable techniques and direct advice will help parents feel more in-control of a circumstance that has upended their life. She alerts parents to key personnel in the hospital, gives dialogue prompts to help parents ask for the help they need, addresses the needs of their other children at home, offers advice on how to best utilize friends and family who want to help, includes stories from other families who have been there, and teaches coping techniques to help both parents and children weather the stress of prolonged illness and even death.

When Your Child is Sick is a valuable guide to managing the myriad practical and emotional complications of an impossible situation.

Joanna Breyer was educated at Oxford and Harvard where she got her psychology doctoral degree in 1983. As a psychologist she worked with children with cancer and their families for over 25 years at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Children's Hospital Boston. She worked in the David B. Perini Quality of Life Clinic for Survivors of Childhood Cancer for over 10 years. She is married to Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.