Fundación Aladina

Psychological support

Being very aware of the difficult road the families must follow with
their children in every stage of their illness, the Aladina Foundation
has provided a special place for psychological support for the
individual, the couple or the family.

In this way, the Aladina offers the possibility to ask for
personalised therapeutic help. The objective is to help find,
generate and assess all available resources to face the difficult
moments, such as helping families adapt to the new situations
that a cancer diagnosis implies.

Aladina has also made available a place where parents in need
can share experiences, adjust to losses and wrestle with social
isolation. From this, bereavement groups are born to help in the
process and help parents face common emotions such as guilt,
anger, fear, sadness, pain, disbelief and lonliness which emerge
from the necessity to make sense out of what has happened.

Psychological Support Project for Medical Staff

The Aladina Foundation, being well aware of the arduous work carried out each day by the nurses and doctors in the Hemo/Oncology Unit, the Palliative Unit and in the ICU of the Niño Jesús Hospital, has provided a therapeutic place with a team of volunteer psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists. This support is free of charge.

The professional caregivers are greatly affected emotionally. Doctors and nurses who are in daily contact with suffering families are in constant risk of emotional exhaustion

With the aim to provide these professionals with adequate psychological support to confront the daily problems in the hospital and reduce stress levels, the Psychological Support of Professionals Project was born.

The objective is to help the medical staff in:

• Recognizing and managing emotions and feelings.
• Developing a person's capacity for self-motivation.
• Reducing feelings of loneliness and emotional exhaustion.
• Helping to develop and increase effective ways of dealing with problems.
• Processing eventual mourning.
• Reducing stress; and finally.
• Facilitating a comfortable work environment.

The psychological support for medical staff has initially been estimated to be for a period between three to six months for every patient with an hour's consultation every week. The time and the kind of treatment for each case would be decided by a specialist. The first stage of this project will be available to doctors and nurses in the Hemo/Oncology Unit, Palliative Unit and the ICU of the Niño Jesús Children's Hospital.