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Reading intervention study for children with cancer – recruiting professionals

Reading intervention study for children with cancer – recruiting professionals

Brighter with books: Co-designing a reading intervention to improve emotional wellbeing in children with cancer. Recruiting professionals.

About the study

We are looking for health professionals, teachers, librarians and hospital volunteers with experience working with children with cancer or their families to help design a reading program to support emotional wellbeing.

Bibliotherapy involves reading for health benefits and can include reading fiction, non-fiction, clinical workbooks, and self-help books. Bibliotherapy interventions with adults with cancer have demonstrated improvements in quality of life, distress, depression, anxiety, coping skills, and social functioning. There is some research supporting the use of bibliotherapy to support emotional wellbeing in children who have anxiety, depression, behavioural concerns, or have experienced trauma, however there are few studies involving children with cancer, and none set in Australia.

This study aims to develop a bibliotherapy (reading) intervention through co-design with relevant stakeholders, and for these workshops we are seeking health professionals, teachers, hospital volunteers and librarians. Participants from these stakeholder groups will be invited to participate in co-design workshops, held in hybrid format (in-person or via Teams). After an initial workshop of up to one hour, participants will be invited to attend a second workshop if they would like to provide feedback on the reading intervention designed from results of the first round of workshops. This reading intervention will then be trialled with children in the next stage of this project.

Eligibility

Health professionals, teachers, librarians and hospital volunteers with experience working with children with cancer or their families in the past two years.
Adults, aged ≥18 years.
Able to speak conversational English.
Willing and able to participate in a workshop on Teams or in hybrid, face to face and Teams, format.
Willing to be audio-recorded during workshops.