"In the fifteen years since it was published, HOW TO HELP CHILDREN THROUGH A PARENT'S SERIOUS ILLNESS has become the standard work on the subject. If offers supportive, practical advice, including: what to tell children about their parent's illness, how to recognize early-warning signs in a child's drawings, sleep patterns, schoolwork and eating habits, and when and where to get professional help. This remains the only work dedicated to helping children come through a family medical crisis emotionally whole - no matter what the outcome of the crisis itself. But those fifteen years have brought a tsunami of new developments affecting these children, all of which will be explored in this greatly expanded new edition, including the dangers and opportunities of the Internet, a deep new understanding of how hereditary diseases affect children, the impact of the nation's explosive growth in single-parent families, and new insights into how family trauma and mental illness may affect children. Based on the lifetime experience and clinical practice of Kathleen McCue, MA, CCLS, one of America 's leading child life practitioners, HOW TO HELP CHILDREN THROUGH A PARENT'S SERIOUS ILLNESS will continue to be a go-to book for generations of families in medical crisis"-- Provided by publisher.