Gabay Magulang: A Parent-Empowerment Program

Background and context: Gabay Magulang or Parent Guide is a collaboration between Kythe Foundation Inc. and selected medical students to provide support for and empower parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer. With the guide, parents would be better able to understand and care for their children. Aim: The program has two aims. First, it seeks to inform parents by providing relevant information on childhood cancer and its treatment. Second, the program hopes to develop and empower core Parent Leaders who will take the lead in educating and supporting other parents. Strategy/Tactics: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with parents of children with cancer to better understand their needs and how best they can be supported. With the information gathered, a draft of the guide was written by the medical students and forwarded first to Kythe staff and then to pediatric hematologists/oncologists for editing. Four pediatric hematologists/oncologists edited the booklet before publishing. From the initial FGDs, a select group of core parents were invited to be Parent Leaders. Four training sessions on the use of the guide were conducted by Kythe. After the training, the Parent Leaders led learning sessions with parents of newly diagnosed children. Program/Policy process: Two programs are run every year with four months for each program. Monthly learning sessions are conducted in the four months by the Parent Leaders using Gabay Magulang (Parent Guide). In these four sessions, Kythe staff are present to provide support and a pediatric oncology fellow or consultant is on hand to either discuss a specific topic or provide answers to questions that arise. Outcomes: There are now four Parent Leaders who actively help in educating and empowering parents of newly diagnosed patients. More of the latter set of parents have expressed an increase in awareness and information of pediatric cancer. Likewise, they have become more involved in their children´s journey and treatment process. A new batch of Parent Leaders are now being chosen. What was learned: Empowering parents to be active partners and advocates in the holistic healing of their children undergoing treatment of cancer is essential. The Gabay Magulang program has published a parent guide, trained Parent Leaders to lead learning sessions and has provided parents with opportunities for better understanding of their children's illness and treatment and answered questions through sessions with a pediatric oncology fellow or consultant.