Program areas at Pediatric Oncology Support Team
The anguish and suffering of young patients and their families fighting cancer is profound. That's why post exists - so no family walks their child's cancer journey alone. Post's multidisciplinary Team of dedicated, caring professionals provides free, high-quality, strenght-based psychosocial services to children, teens, and young adults in six south Florida counties. Post's services are family centered because cancer doesn't happen to individuals, it happens to families. In 2023, post helped more than 120 families through counseling, play therapy, medical play, educational advocacy, sibling Support, Support groups, social activities, end of life care, and bereavement. Post's professional staff provides compassionate care to families during the darkest times of their lives. Supportative counseling is the cornerstone of these services, meeting clients wherever they are - in the hospital, clinc,post young hero resource center (called hero's headquarters), school, home, or hospice. In addition, we partner with many local hospitals and universities to provide the best possible evidence-based care. Therefore, with intervention, the anxiety and depression of children with cancer was decreased by 87% and healthy coping of families was improved by 75%.
Our giving help family financial stabilization ensures that families are able to pay for basic living needs so they can focus on what's really important - their child's life. Our bilingual case manager meets with every family who has a child with cancer. She completes a budget and links them with local/national/international resources to assist them in obtaining the help they need to maintain a stable household. In 2022, post client families were linked to almost 950,000 in financial help - not including funds paid directly by post on a family's behalf. Post directly paid 89,800 in housing, utilities, transportation, medication, gas cards, gift cards, and food expenses for 105 families, helping a total of 809 people. Our food pantry helped 134 families supplement their family budget (and/or food stamps), helping a total of 947 individuals.