Education Services for Adolescents and Young Adults
A diagnosis of cancer brings many changes to a person's life.
As a student, you may get some advice that suggests that you need to concentrate all your energies on your treatment. This is true, but it does not mean that education needs to stop. There are many creative solutions to help you continue your education and keep connected with your school friends throughout treatment.
The Back on Track program through onTrac@PeterMac aims to provide students and their schools with learning and communication strategies. It's important to ensure that you continue to be art of your school community. A key element of the Back on Track program is that schools continue to provide their students with academic and social support.
The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Education Institute is the Victorian State Coordinator of the Back on Track program and it is funded through The Bone Marrow Donor Institute. For more information about BMDI, visit www.bmdi.org.au
What service does the back on track program provide?
Once a young person is referred to the onTrac@PeterMac program and it is considered they may benefit from meeting with the teams Education Coordinator, we will make contact. The role of the Education Program Coordinator is to assist the young person and their school to maintain communication and connection, whether the young person is in hospital, recovering at home or returning to school. This is done through:
- Organising meetings with the student's school to establish effective and ongoing mechanisms for liaison between the home, school and hospital. This is done to ensure a continuum of education provision.
- Assisting schools to develop educational and communication strategies so that children and young people are able to maintain a regular work program and regular contact with their peers.
- Maintaining communication links between the student and the school through weekly online or phone conversations with a key contact at the school.
- Assisting the student to access information and communication technologies at the hospital and at home.
- Assisting schools to develop educational strategies for managing modification of learning activities.
- Providing one hour of individual tuition per week to assist students with their personal learning needs. If the student is recovering at home, this tuition session may be conducted online.
- Assisting with the coordination of other educational services.
Contact details: For more information, contact the Back on Track team at www.edinst.com.au.