Book Description

"Adolescents with chronic illness, particularly when accompanied by debilitating, painful, and/or fatiguing symptoms, face challenges that are disruptive to their normal physical, psychological, and social development. The Children's Health and Illness Recovery Program (CHIRP) is an evidence-based program specifically designed to address the skills needed by adolescents with chronic illnesses to become more confident and independent in coping and managing their illness and lifestyle. The flexible 12-session format of CHIRP can be administered with individual teens and their families, or conducted in teen groups with a parallel parent group component. CHIRP integrates and adapts effective treatment components from Behavioral Family Systems Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Coping Strategies Intervention, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Assertiveness training, among others, into therapeutic activities in the companion CHIRP Teen and Family Workbook. This CHIRP Clinician Guide provides detailed instructions for implementing the manualized treatment protocol in the workbook. CHIRP was developed from both a careful review of the evidence-based literature on treatments for adolescents with chronic physical illness and the authors' more than six decades of combined experience in helping children and families improve their quality of life and independence while coping with a chronic illness. Clinical outcome data on teens who have completed CHIRP demonstrate significant improvement in independent functioning and reduction in symptoms of fatigue and chronic pain; longitudinal data suggest these improvements not only persist but teens continue to make gains on these factors beyond the completion of treatment, allowing them to pursue meaningful life goals as they transition to young adulthood"--