Whispers: Change in the Parent–Child Communication From Parent–Child Camp

Background: Hope Foundation for Cancer Care has been organizing programs for parent–child camps for family suffering with cancer. Communications between parents and their minor children are expected to improve by talking about cancers and emotional management for being uncertain, worried or even scared when faced with cancers. Aim: Hope Foundation for Cancer Care strives to support families to apply the befits from the camps to their day-to-day family lives to let the family members know that communication about cancer is not a once-off experience but continuous efforts in the future. Methods: Without knowing how the camps might turn out beforehand, the research set off at a semistructured depth interview to gather information about the subjective interpretation of participants. Results: The study shows that most participants were quite impressed with the camp, which ran in a casual way, and they were satisfied with related themes in those activities. They were very willing to share their personal experiences with the camp for better mutual understanding and more intimate feelings revealed among family members. Attending the camp also offered those parents to rest and free from taking care of their children, and changed the way they used to communicate. Besides, the participants suggested to shorten the durations of each scheduled session to lessen the physical pressure of patients. Conclusion: In the end of the research, it is considered great challenge to strike a balance between recreational output and experiential output. After all, it has long been the very incentive to design an environment for cancer patients and their children to learn to relax, which seems too loose when it lacks balance. On the other hand, one of the main goals is set to open communication access to understand cancers, which may be reached by other service programs. Therefore, derivation of diverse methods and programs are now one of our priorities.