Teenagers and young adults have different needs compared to adults or the elderly. Regarding hospice palliative care, the emotional trauma for children and their parents can be overwhelming and confusing. Teenagers have a different way of looking at life and dealing with their situations, so expecting them to behave like adults after finding out they need end-of-life care is unfair.
Coping with a Life-Altering Diagnosis
Palliative care for teenagers and young adults has dedicated care providers who offer support to the patient and their parents. It’s a roller coaster of challenges and emotions, and dealing with these ups and downs requires a calm, compassionate, and collected person. A trained and certified palliative care professional can be that person for your child.
When teenagers or their parents opt for hospice care knowing no treatment will work for the life-limiting illness, they expect someone who can make sense of things. A wide range of emotions floods a teenager’s head when they learn that life will end in months and not years.
Some emotions that palliative care can help them deal with include the following:
- Anger
- Denial
- Guilt
- Sadness
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Shock or disbelief
- Confusion
- Emptiness or numbness
- Feeling helpless
Parents and caretakers can be overwhelmed by the amount of work required to deal with a child with a life-limiting illness. It can impact their relationship and interactions that can take a toll on everyone’s mental health. With hospice and palliative care, you can prevent the illness from taking over everyone’s life and let your teenager feel the emotions and come to terms with reality. The change in lifestyle and daily activities is so dramatic when treatment, medication, and doctor visits become part of every day.
Everyone in the family will be shocked when a teenager receives a diagnosis like this. Not just the family, but the entire community – neighbors, schoolmates and teachers – may need support and information.
Some teens even have natural inclinations to rebel, become depressed, or conversely, pretend things are okay and try to make jokes about their diagnosis as a distraction. Others may seeks support and even deepen their faith or religious activities. There are so many different reactions and all are valid ways of coping. It is important to validate whatever truth a teen is experiencing in their emotional life. At a time when they would be on the verge of independence, a diagnosis like this changes everything and brings an unimaginable amount of stress.
Palliative Care for Teenagers at Hospice Home Care
Learning that your teenage kid won’t be with you for long is a devastating experience for any parent. On top of that, you must care for your child and make sure they don’t lose themselves in the illness. Parents or carers don’t have to go through this experience alone when palliative care at Hospice Home Care can take care of you, your child, and your family’s emotional and spiritual needs.
