Child Life Services		Preparing for Tests and Treatments
	Psychotherapeutic Services		Additional Services
	Psychological Services		Financial Counseling

The entire family is affected when a child or a family member has a life-threatening or chronic illness. The information that our patients and their families obtain increases their ability to make decisions and provides them with a sense of control over their diagnosis and treatment. Our behavioral health team members provide support services that offer answers to your questions, concerns, and comments.

Child Life Services

The Child Life Program is designed to help meet the unique emotional and developmental needs of the children and teenagers. Therapeutic interventions such as medical play, procedural preparation, developmentally appropriate education, therapeutic recreation, music therapy, and procedural accompaniment are all implemented to help reduce the fear and anxiety of our patients, and to promote self-expression and peer interaction. To help normalize the medical environment, birthdays and holidays are celebrated continually throughout the year.

The Child Life Program is centered in our Playroom. Patients, siblings and parents are always welcome to partake in therapeutic activities. As the Playroom is a safe haven for our patients, medical procedures are not performed in the Playroom. It is a place where children and teenagers can have fun, and not feel threatened by the medical environment.

As children and teenagers often receive treatment in the clinic area, Child Life also provides activities and interventions in the clinic. One-on-one therapeutic activities are provided, as well as movies and portable CD players. In addition, patients can play Nintendo games provided by the Child Life Program. Special visitors such as clowns, magicians and singers are at Hassenfeld on a regular basis to provide additional diversion and laughter.

When your teenager or child is medically cleared, our School Re-Entry Program eases the transition between home tutoring and going back to school. Visits to the school can be arranged to meet with administrators, teachers, school nurses and the returning child's class to answer questions, provide information and dispel any misconceptions which may still exist.

Back to top

Psychological Services

Evaluation Services:
Psychological screenings at the point of initial diagnosis, and periodic reevaluations during the course of the treatment, are a component of comprehensive medical treatment. A neuropsychologist, a senior psychologist, post-doctoral fellows and pre-doctoral interns participate in providing neuropsychological /psychological/and educational tests to assess patients' functioning and determine their needs.

Neuropsychological examinations are clinically indicated and medically necessary when patients display signs and symptoms of intellectual compromise, cognitive and/or neurobehavioral dysfunction that involve, but are not restricted to, memory deficits, language disorders, learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, pervasive developmental disorders, impairment of organization and planning, difficulty with cognition, and perceptual abnormalities.

Thorough evaluations seek to identify areas of cognitive strength as well as deficits that may have arisen because of their disease and treatment. The results of each evaluation are subsequently explained to the parents of the patient as well as the child or adolescent when developmentally appropriate. The informing session is followed by a written report which documents the patient's performance and test scores, concluding with a series of recommendations for both school and home.

Cognitive Remediation Services:
The Hassenfeld Center on the NYU campus provides cognitive remediation services for school aged patient's who are displaying attention and concentration problems in school that may be a consequence of their disease and treatment. A referral to the cognitive remediation program provides a neuropsychological screening as a baseline assessment and if the patient is found to be an appropriate candidate, will be enrolled in weekly, individual cognitive remediation sessions for twenty sessions of one hour in duration each week following a structured protocol for enhancing both visual and auditory attention and concentration. The program concludes with a post treatment evaluation to closely monitor the patient's progress.

Early Intervention Services:
The Hassenfeld Center also provides an early childhood intervention program for patients of preschool and Kindergarten age (2 years old to 5 years old) by addressing possible speech and language delays as well as any fine motor delays that a child may experience during their treatment.

School Liason Program Services:
A School Liason Program has been established to assist each patient with their transition back to school once their treatment has concluded or been changed to enable them to return to a classroom setting. The program can provide an array of services ranging from individual counseling to class presentations and meetings with school personnel.

Back to top

Preparing for Test and Treatments

Educating a child about tests or procedures can help eliminate some anxiety. It is important to remember to provide a child with age-appropriate information. It may be helpful to inform a pre-schooler about procedures shortly before they occur. Utilize the child's words and explanations and encourage them to voice concerns or questions. It is important to reiterate that the child is not being punished or penalized by the procedure. Explain that the test or medicine is working to try to make them better. You should tell the child that it is okay to cry, or say ouch, but that the nurse or doctor will need the child's help to hold still. Older children may benefit from education in the form of literature discussions

There are some things that a child can do to stay calm, and possibly relieve some pain:
• Hold someone's hand tightly.
• Say "ouch" loudly when something hurts.
• Count 'one, two, three' before a shot.
• Take deep breaths and exhale when the needle goes in.
• Think good thoughts.
• Cry if needed.
• Learn relaxation techniques: It is not uncommon for a child to be upset about receiving treatment. He/she may have physical discomfort associated with treatments, for example, nausea. Your child may benefit from learning ways to relax. This training teaches your child techniques to relax his/her body in order to decrease his/her physical discomfort as well as use them as distraction during uncomfortable procedures. Relaxation training is tailored to each individual and his/her specific needs.

Back to top

Psychotherapeutic Services

• Individual/Family/Group Psychotherapy and Support Groups:
Parents, patients, and siblings can benefit from discussing and learning to manage behaviors and emotions. Addressing their concerns and dispelling misconceptions about the illness and its treatment will improve the quality of the daily life of patients and their families. Individual meetings with the patients and their caregiver should be the initial approach, followed by and/or concomittant with group activities.

• Psychoeducational groups and seminars for parents/caregivers on pediatric services:
Support groups are held for the caregivers, patients, or siblings offer individuals a venue to ask questions as well as give and receive support around issues related to adjustment to illness. In a child-focused practice, children benefit from the opportunity to meet each other in a social and therapeutic setting so they can discuss shared concerns, receive education, and socialize. Additionally, opportunities for caregivers to speak with others whose child has a similar diagnosis is also be facilitated. In-service programs and guest speakers include nutritionists, parents of survivors, young adult survivors, and siblings of survivors.

• Multidisciplinary Treatment planning: with specific goals /objectives and periodic reviews to monitor progress: recommendations include: child life medical play interventions/recreation and/or music therapy; more comprehensive assessments (via neuropsychological consultations in-house and/or referral to Board of Education; individual/family counseling)

• Bilingual patients:
The psychological functioning of the bilingual patient requires additional interventions, as language is an organizer of cognitive / affective experiences, it mediates experiences of expression/repression/dissociation related to illness and treatment.

Usually, issues related to bilingualism also connect to level of acculturation and immigration issues of each family (immigration stress/cultural identity/inability to communicate, adaptation to changes in socioeconomic standing/loss , mourning). These impact effective communication, access and adherence to medical treatment.

• Crisis Intervention: Upon initial diagnosis or throughout the duration of treatment, there will be heightened episodes of anxiety or concern. The team at Hassenfeld can introduce supportive counseling techniques which can be utilized.

• Psychiatric medication consultations

Back to top

Additional Services

Facing the reality of your child's new diagnosis can often be emotionally taxing and financially overwhelming. Family members will be faced with a host of issues concerning the costs of treatment. Based on each family's insurance, different resources may be provided to patients to assist with potential concerns. We can help arrange for services and provide referrals when necessary. The behavioral health team is available for the following services (to be determined on individual basis):

Back to top

Financial Counseling

Facing the reality of your child’s new diagnosis can often be emotionally taxing and financially overwhelming. Family members will be faced with a host of issues concerning the costs of treatment. Based on each family’s insurance, different resources may be provided to patients to assist with potential concerns. We can help arrange for services and provide referrals when necessary. The behavioral health team is available for the following services (to be determined on individual basis):

Back to top