Perspectives from a Psych-Oncology Team Working with Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer

Exploring the work of a psych-oncology team in an inpatient and out-patient setting, this powerful, interesting and engaging book is about teenagers and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

Jane Elfer is a child and adolescent psychotherapist. She worked at UCLH for 18 years, working in all paediatric departments but mainly in the paediatric cancer services. Prior to this, she had worked in CAMHS, social care, the NSPCC, and primary schools. Her professional doctorate looks at the emotional impact of adolescents donating bone marrow to a sibling. Since retiring from the NHS, she continues to work with children and young people, her professional body, and a charity for children in hospital.

Introduction; 1 Overview: cancer in teenagers and young adults and psycho-oncology; 2 The cancer journey; 3 Adolescents with cancer: a journey interrupted; 4 Keeping young adults with cancer connected: a psychologist's reflections; 5 Cancer in adolescence from a trauma perspective; 6 Reverberations through the mind: explorations of emotional complexities arising from childhood cancer and its "late effects"; 7 Hope and despair in the face of life-threatening disease; 8 Working with families where a young person is facing death