Managing the flow of information | Seeking, processing, and sharing information about the illness and the family's response. |
Reorganising roles | Minimal to dramatic changes in family roles, but usually a shift for 1 parent to take on the additional demands caused by the illness (eg, rearranging work schedules, child care, and household responsibilities). |
Evaluating and shifting priorities | A process of asking what are our important values? and comparing actions with these values; when dissonance was found, behaviours were changed. Families talked about feeling closer, valuing time together, and appreciating small things. |
Changing future orientation | A shift in the time frame for the child's and family's goals from the distant future (eg, college plans) to the immediate future (ie, next few days or weeks). |
Assigning meaning to the illness | A process of understanding the illness in terms of family members' explanations of the world (eg, how illness relates to spiritual beliefs, and positive and negative aspects of the illness experience). |
Managing the therapeutic regimen | Family members meet the demands of the illness by performing caregiving tasks (eg, giving medications, managing treatment side effects, and making alternative arrangements for employment and household chores). |