Family Dealing with Terminal Illness (daughter only) (#206B)

A young woman is asked to meet and discuss her younger brother’s behaviour as the family is dealing with the mother’s illness.

• Encouraging dialogue 
• Acknowledging feelings 
• Respecting differing perspectives 
• Maintaining professionalism 

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the behaviour of Peter Eaton, Rebecca’s 11 year old brother.  Peter is in an after school program.nPeter and Rebecca’s mother is ill and unable to attend the meeting. For the last 2 months, Rebecca has been responsible for picking Peter up after school. She agreed to attend the meeting in her mother’s place as her father is working out of town.

Peter is in Grade 6. There is some concern that he is withdrawing from activities and his school work is suffering. There has been a noticeable change in his behaviour in the last couple of weeks. In the after school program, Peter could always be counted on to help with the younger students as well as working on his homework assignments. Now he simply sits alone with a book or goes on the computer. No one seems to be able to reach him, he is closed off.

You are hoping that Rebecca can shed some light on this.