Support Services

Recognizing that children with cancer need more than medical care, the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Program supports patients and their families by helping them meet their social, emotional, educational, and behavioral needs.

Partnering with Yale Child Study Center, the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology team includes three psychologists, a psychiatrist, and three social workers who offer an array of psychosocial services to children receiving cancer care at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, the Smilow Cancer Hospital pediatric hematology-oncology clinic, and our site in Guilford. Services are available to patients and their families.

Services include:

• Routine psychological and social evaluations for newly diagnosed patients and their families
• Home visitations for the most gravely ill or psychiatrically symptomatic children and their families
• A school integration program that includes counseling for families and children about their rights to have special services, and working with school districts to make the appropriate accommodations for students returning to school, including providing special education services if necessary
• Psycho-educational and neuropsychological testing for patients who are at risk for neurocognitive problems such as short-term memory loss, inability to focus or trouble walking and balancing
• Support groups for siblings
• Support groups for parents with trauma symptoms
• End-of-life support team for children who are terminally ill

In addition, Yale New Haven Children's Hospital provides services such as child life, clown visitation, and music and massage therapists, to help both children and families to cope with illness and treatment. The HEROS Clinic at Smilow Cancer Hospital offers children, adolescents and adults a survivor clinic focused on wellness issues after treatment for childhood cancer.