ABSTRACT
Parents faced with a child’s unanticipated, serious medical condition such as a life-threatening illness, premature birth, diagnosis of cancer, stoke, leukemia, Huntington’s disease, or life-threatening accident, also experience elevated levels of fear and anxiety. The impact of these health crises are recognized as traumatic by the American Psychological Association (1994). As such, the emotional distress that erupts after fi nding out about a child’s serious health condition can shatter previous assumptions about the role of parenting and the healthcare delivery system, and is likely to generate feelings of high uncertainty for the parents. A diagnosis of serious illness for a child is horrifying for parents and often results in a fractured reality where everyday circumstances, sequences, routines, and relationships are shaken (Clarke-Steffen, 1993; Cohen, 1993). Parents tend to feel helpless during these medical crises and frequently do not know how to make decisions or how to protect their children from additional harm (Clarke-Steffen, 1993). The swirl of events often leaves the parents feeling bewildered. Depending on how ill their child is, the constant fear that there might be a possibility of death is never far away (Cohen, 1993).
