Center for Comprehensive Wellness

The multifaceted Center for Comprehensive Wellness (CCW) within the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation assimilates integrative treatments and supportive care into each patient’s plan of care from day one, with an eye to providing personalized care for each child and family in our care.

The CCW conducts wide-ranging research on the patterns of use and overall effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and nutrition throughout the world. In addition, our clinicians have established innovative global outreach programs using these therapies to optimize patient care.

What makes our program different?

We Strive To Provide the Most Personalized and Useful Help

The professional staff of the CCW strives to understand the emotional and educational needs of our patients at different points in their care, and provide services designed to meet those needs.

While the PIPseq and medical programs seek to achieve more precise treatments for disease, we believe wellness care must be personalized for the child and family as well. Even as we provide our support from the very first visit, we are also conducting research to determine which what kind of support is most helpful, and which patients benefit the most.

Our Approach to Care

The Center for Comprehensive Wellness provides supportive care for children and their families throughout their care, integrating approaches for body, mind, and spirit:

Wellness for the Body

The CCW offers multiple integrative therapies for physical well being during care, including massage therapy, reflexology, acupuncture and acupressure, Reiki and therapeutic touch, exercise, yoga, aromatherapy, and mind-body techniques such as meditation and guided imagery to relieve symptoms and stress. We also offer nutritional counseling, including use of herbal and other supplements in conjunction with nutrition educators who work with children during and after treatment.

Wellness for the Mind

We offer neuropsychological assessment to understand the physical and emotional profile of each patient, and offer psychosocial support, including individual and group counseling for families.

Child Life

Specialists provide emotional support to patients and their families and use age-appropriate therapeutic play and education to help children understand their illness and medical procedures.

Caregivers Who Connect With Patients and Their Families

Social workers specializing in childhood illness provide emotional support, advocacy, crisis intervention, and referrals to resources, and help coordinate a safe and secure plan when it is time to leave the hospital. We also offer pastoral care through caregivers who provide religious and spiritual support for patients and their families.

Long-Term Survivor Program

The staff at CCW offers a unique program that continues to provide care for cancer survivors. This program regularly monitors patients for late complications of cancer treatment, promotes survivor wellness, and provides specific areas of medical support for these patients, including access to reproductive endocrinologists to provide fertility support, including fertility preservation for those who need it.

Palliative Care

The CCW staff is also dedicated to improving the quality of life of patients and their families from the moment of diagnosis through palliative care, which aims to relieve symptoms, including pain and stress, and help patients understand and cope with a serious illness.

As patients undergo medical treatments for their illness, the CCW provides integrated supportive care from day one and throughout the patient’s care, even reaching beyond the treatment period into survivor support and palliative care. Our approach to care is personalized to each child and family’s individual physical and emotional needs.