Lauren Mikula, M.S., a fourth-year doctoral student, recently received funding to develop an innovative peer mentoring program for adolescents being treated for cancer at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
Mikula, along with Dr. Lissette Perez-Lima from Joe DiMaggio and CPS professor Jan Faust, Ph.D., will be creating a unique program in which cancer survivors between the ages of 18-22 will serve as peer mentors for adolescents undergoing treatment for cancer. According to Mikula, “the mentors will be trained with a specific curriculum that includes active listening, empathy, self-disclosure, boundaries, confidentiality issues, and resources for crisis management.” The study has received funding from Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation, Pediatric Oncology Fund and from the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.
“Though some programs exist across the country, we are the first to measure the outcome variables with adolescents/young adults,” Mikula notes. Both mentors and mentees will complete objective measures of anxiety, depression, and overall quality of life, as well as subjective measures to evaluate their experience in the program. “Peer mentoring programs have been shown to be effective in school, community, and breast cancer populations. Our goal is to examine similar programs within the adolescent/young adult population. This is imperative, because of the unique developmental and social demands of adolescence and young adulthood, which are further complicated by the disease of cancer and its treatment.”
The study, which has the potential to improve the quality of life for many young cancer survivors – including those participating as mentors and as mentees – is expected to begin enrolling participants in November 2008.
Monday, October 13, 2008
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