Aetna awarded Starlight Starbright a Quality of Care Grant to develop a program to help seriously ill teens who are facing end of life challenges cope with their feelings and express their wishes and thoughts to loved ones.
Many times teens who are facing the end of their life pass away without having an opportunity to express their thoughts, feelings and wishes to loved ones or friends. This not only leaves the teen passing away without coping with their feelings, it leaves loved ones grieving without the benefit of hearing their child's last wishes and thoughts. Seriously ill teens have expressed the need to document their lives and feelings and leave behind the story of their lives for friends and family to view after they are gone.
Starlight Starbright and Aetna are partnering to develop an online intervention geared toward helping teens process their own feelings and thoughts, and create an online documentation of their life and experience for their friends and family to view after their death. This program is being developed with the input of an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals who are expert in palliative care and end of life issues.
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