Generously funded by Donors of Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

Meera Rayar – University of British Columbia, BC

Project Title: “Health Care Providers and Educators role in school re-integration for Childhood and Adolescent Neuro-Oncology Survivors”

Description of Project:

The educational experiences of children and adolescents diagnosed with brain and spinal tumours can be influenced by several factors, including interruptions in their schooling, concurrent psychological difficulties (e.g. depression, anxiety) and the direct impact of their tumour and treatment on their ability to learn. Survivors school performances can also be impacted by how well they are able to reintegrate back into their school. Findings from a small number of studies have shown that education reintegration plans can assist with communication between survivors, their families, health care providers and educators. These studies, however, often only include the perspectives of one group (only patients, families or health care providers), focused on one type of cancer and/or have a small number of participants. Our previous work has explored brain and spinal tumour survivors and their families lived experiences with re-entering the school system after a cancer diagnosis. This proposed project will build upon this knowledge and examine the viewpoints of health care providers and educators. Collectively, these findings will increase our understanding of brain and spinal tumour survivor experience re-entering their school and allow us to create evidence-based guidelines to assist survivors reintegration into school.

What receiving this award means:

We would like to thank the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada for the support of our project. Attending school not only allows students to learn but the opportunity to develop interests, connect with peers, and form lifelong bonds. With your generous support we will explore pediatric brain tumour survivors’ and their families’ experience re-entering the education system after a cancer diagnosis. This project is being developed by persons with live experience, researchers, educators and healthcare providers. We hope that our project will have a positive impact on how we support our pediatrics survivors in their schooling.