Contact the Bear Essentials program director to receive copies of the slides that correspond with this presentation.

Our slide presentation includes 20 slides and an accompanying script. It can be used to communicate your program to your administrators, donors, staff and parents. You may use your own group name in place of "Bear Essentials" or use the script as is to describe an existing program.

Slide Presentation

1. Bear Essentials is a special program developed for children of cancer patients. The children range in age from four to 12. The purpose of this program is to address the basic needs of children:
   • Information
   • A safe, supportive environment
   • Opportunity for expression
   • Hope
2. Need for program -- Families are hit hard by a diagnosis of cancer -- children, especially are affected in many ways.
3. Children don't really know what cancer is and what it's all about.
4. Family patterns change, often dramatically:
   
   • Treatment
   • Hospitalizations
   • Roles
   • Routines
   This typically affects family members individually and as a whole.
5. Children's feelings change -- they may have many feelings, both happy and sad.
6. The goal of the Bear Essentials program is to strengthen families by helping both children and parents focus on expressing their feelings. Parents meet concurrently to:
   • Discuss issues related to coping with medical treatment
   • Better understand how to best manage family issues and concerns
7. Themes are used for each meeting with the children. A typical meeting lasts 90 minutes and consists of:
   • A friendship circle
   • A story
   • An activity
   • Arts and crafts
   • Refreshments
8. Our program lets the children learn about cancer through hands-on experiences such as a field trip to the cancer center. Here the children can learn more about chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and ask questions of health-care professionals.
9. These next three slides cover some of the themes used in the Bear Essentials program.
10. Love -- children like to express their love for a parent, especially on Valentine's Day.
11. Feelings -- children express both their inside feelings and outside feelings through drawings .
12. . . . And also through painting.
13. There are many Measures to help children cope. Some of those we explore through Bear Essentials
14. . . . Involve parent participation and
15. . . . Puppet shows designed to help children see common patterns.
16. There are many exercises that help children cope
17. . . Adult facilitators provide comfort and support and
18. . . Special events to celebrate together.
19. Supporting a child when a parent has cancer begins with:
    • Focusing on the needs of the child
    • Strengthening the family
    • Using the resources of the medical team
    • Building a support group that brings these needs and resources together
    • Reaching out to the community for referrals and financial support
20. Although parents are asked to complete a formal written evaluation on a regular basis, the key to success of the program is what the children say about Bear Essentials.