Practical report on the CLIMB® program for supporting parents with cancer and their children

When a parent is diagnosed with cancer, the parental role must be maintained and children receive support to understand and cope with their parents' illness. One form of support for such families is the CLIMB® program, a series of group sessions aimed at emotional expression and communication. In this descriptive study, we evaluated the CLIMB® program by surveying parents and children who participated. The study participants included 19 children (11 boys and 8 girls) along with 16 parents. Fourteen parents were mothers with cancer, and two were fathers with cancer. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 the highest children highly rated emotional expression craft activities. The highest parent rating was for "The support group my child attended was good." The next highest scores were for "the child was appropriately supervised" and "it was a positive, supportive environment for the child." CLIMB® provided valuable support in learning about feelings related to parental cancer.