COMMUNICATION ABOUT PARENTAL ILLNESS WITH CHILDREN WHO HAVE LEARNING-DISABILITIES AND BEHAVIORAL-PROBLEMS - 3 CASE-STUDIES

Parental illness can have a profound impact on family relationships an d children's behaviour. The amount and nature of communication between parents and children about the illness can play an important role, bo th positively and negatively, in mediating the outcomes. When children have a disability, families can be reluctant to communicate with them about family difficulties. They are often concerned about the impact that parental unavailability may have on their child's life. This pape r reports on three families in which the mother was diagnosed with bre ast cancer and one child in the family had a disability. The extent an d specific characteristics of their communication about the maternal i llness with their children, behavioural changes in the children, expla nations of communication strategies and attributions of behavioural ch anges are described. Family coping strategies are examined with refere nce to Lazarus's process model of stress and coping and the use of eit her problem-focused or emotion-focused strategies. implications for po ssible clinical interventions are proposed. In particular it is sugges ted that families be offered consultation about: what children might u nderstand; ways in which to communicate effectively; and strategies fo r coping with the long-term implications of serious parental illness.