The Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program (SCCIP) is an intensive, 1-day family group treatment intervention designed to reduce the distress associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in teenage survivors of childhood cancer (ages 11-18) and their parents/caregivers and siblings (ages 11-19). By reframing cancer-related beliefs and consequences in a positive context using open communication of thoughts, fears, feelings, and memories, SCCIP aims to promote individual and family coping, competence, and resilience.
Four sequential group sessions are conducted on a Saturday or Sunday with six to eight participating families. The two morning sessions emphasize the use of cognitive-behavioral skills to reduce persisting distress around the cancer experience. These sessions are conducted separately for teenage survivors, mothers, fathers, and teenage siblings. Session 3, the first session of the afternoon, starts with separate group conversations with survivors, mothers, fathers, and siblings about the cancer experience and concludes with the sharing of these discussions with the whole group. The final session asks the families to identify what they have learned about the impact of cancer on different family members and how this knowledge can help place the cancer experience into a historical context that allows them to move on with their lives individually and as a family unit.