Strategies to help adolescents with a seriously ill parent

The final stage of a parent’s illness is exceptionally stressful for all members of a family, but particularly for adolescents, who are at a developmental crossroads. Adolescents experience great psychological vulnerability requiring clear and honest communication with supportive adults to help them manage their lives.

Professor Sheehan will present the strategies that have emerged from over 100 interviews with adolescents, their parents, and young adults. She will discuss the Coping and Communication Questionnaire, a clinical screening tool to assess the adolescent’s ways of coping and level of comfort when their parent is near the end of life.

About the speaker

Professor Sheehan is a nurse researcher at Kent State University, Ohio, a Fellow in Palliative Care Nursing, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London. She has over 16 years of experience conducting studies focused on improving the lives of adolescents with a seriously ill parent.

About the seminar series 

The Cicely Saunders Institute Open Seminar Series events are free to attend.

This seminar is worth CPD (1 credit) pending from the Royal College of Physicians.

The series aim is to optimise opportunities for local, national and international networking within palliative care and rehabilitation. We facilitate seminars to assist in improving practice, education and policy, and the integration of research and clinical endeavours.