Bass Center Caregiver Wellness Event Fosters Community and Connection

In late September, a few dozen caregivers of children with cancer or blood or immunological disorders gathered on the Stanford campus to do something critical but often overlooked: carve out time to focus on their own wellness.

The event, the inaugural Bass Center Wellness Education Day for Pediatric Caregivers, was designed to help attendees learn valuable tools and techniques to enhance their wellness while caring for loved ones.

The daylong event featured sessions on stress management, yoga, parent-child communication tips, art therapy, meditation, and more.

“Traditionally, much of the focus during and after treatment is on the patient, and often the caregiver is told to be strong, but they need moments of respite and tools for wellness to process everything that is going on,” said Veronica DeRosa, BSN, RN, BA, NC-BC, CBC, a nurse coordinator who works with the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation program and a co-organizer of the event. “We wanted to address the needs of the caregiver.”

Attendees said that they valued the helpful resources and tools, as well as the ability to connect with other caregivers.

“I loved the community of like-minded people who were brought together to share, bond, and grow together through our traumas,” said one attendee.

The event organizers are planning to offer similar resources and chances to connect in the future.

“This event shows that our caregivers are hungry for support for themselves,” said co-organizer Sarah Simmons, RN, BSN. “They want tools to carry them along to better support their family. To have an institution that values this commitment to the caregiver and provides these tools and resources internally allows the caregiver to spend less time and energy searching, and more time working on themselves and spending time with their family.”