"Lasting Impressions: adolescents with cancer share how to cope"--a videotape program

Abstract

This article discusses the production of a videotape program for newly diagnosed adolescent cancer patients and their parents. The video was developed as a goal of the members of Lasting Impressions, a support program for adolescent cancer patients and their parents. The patients wanted to help other patients realistically understand the stresses they would encounter and learn ways to cope with them. The project is unique in that the patients developed the content, wrote the script, and starred in the production. This article details the various components of the project and describes the therapeutic goals achieved.