I’m supporting a young person impacted by cancer

Anyone can access Clan’s services by completing a referral form. You can do this for yourself or for someone in your family who would like to access our services. This process can also be completed by a professional such as a doctor, teachers or social worker. 

We support people from the age of four years old. Young people aged from four to 18 will have the support of our professionally trained Children and Family service. Young people who are care experienced and those with additional support needs can continue to access the service until they are 21 years old.  This team specialises in age appropriate support for young people impacted by a diagnosis, whether it is their own or a loved one.

Young people aged from four to 18 will have the support of our professionally trained Children and Family Service. This is a professionally led service specialising in age appropriate support for children and young people dealing with loss, change and bereavement. 

In addition, Clan’s NHS recognised complementary therapies can be adapted for younger clients and used alongside traditional cancer treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Our specialist massages and treatments can aid young client’s sleep and movement as well as supporting wellbeing.

The team has extensive experience in working with children with different support needs. We work with parents, carers and any professional teams involved in the young person’s care to determine the best approach to their support. Sometimes this means supporting the young person directly and other times this may mean providing support and guidance to the team involved with the child.

Clan works closely with the NHS and our team regularly provides support to patients and families at Royal Aberdeen’s Children’s Hospital. Our services are recognised by the NHS with medical staff regularly referring patients to our team for additional support to help alleviate the physical and emotional side effects associated with a cancer diagnosis.

Clan works in education settings across the north of Scotland to support teaching staff dealing with children impacted by a cancer diagnosis. 

Our team is available to offer guidance to pupils and teaching staff on how your child can be supported in their school if required, ensuring the young person is nurtured across multiple key environments and schoolwork is not impacted as a result of the diagnosis. In addition to offering appointments at Clan Wellbeing centres, our practitioners can  travel to familiar settings such as the family home or the child’s school to minimise disruption. 

Our Children and Family Service (CFS) Team works closely with parents and carers. At some sessions it may be appropriate for you to be at the appointment, but there will also be times when our CFS practitioner will work one-on-one with your child, enabling trust and the opportunity for them to speak freely.

All CFS practitioners must be qualified at degree or equivalent level in health, social care or education. They have also undertaken specific training in child protection and child bereavement. All staff members have full PVG for working with children and adults. We do not use volunteers to operate our CFS service, but all volunteers who attend Clan’s children events are required to have a PVG. 

Yes. Clan works closely with other cancer charities and our team can help you find additional services that may benefit your child. You’re welcome to use support from different organisations. However, we advise against having bereavement, pre-bereavement or counselling sessions with multiple providers at the same time. This can lead to conflicting approaches and can be overwhelming for the young person.

Our professionally trained Children and Families Services Team can help you, as the child’s trusted person, to find the appropriate way to speak to your child about a diagnosis. We can support you with age appropriate materials and resources and can involve you in the child’s own CFS appointments to help navigate conversations. In addition, we can provide parents and caregivers one to one support to further aid healthy family communications.

All of Clan’s services are free, with the exception of our accommodation which costs from £60 per night (based on single occupancy). Depending on your location, you may be entitled to access funding to support the cost of your stay from your local NHS Board.