We know that being in a medical center can feel isolating. For most teens and young adults, having space to yourself and opportunities to socialize are essential to your well-being. That's why we've created areas just for our AYA patients. You stay in a private room and have access to an AYA-only lounge (No parents allowed!). There's also an AYA-only section in our infusion center. Whether you utilize these rooms for hanging with friends, group support activities or relaxing on your own, it gives you space to just be YOU.

• Coordination with your high school: We work with you and your school to determine the best way to fit education into your life. Your options may include in-school accommodations, full homebound, intermittent homebound, online classes or a temporary transfer to our hospital school with teachers certified iwththe Fort Worth Independent School District. 
• Assistance for college students: We can help you navigate conversations with your school and professors about accommodations, missed classes or work, incomplete assignments, dropping classes, tuition refunds and more. One silver lining: There are loads of cancer-specific college or trade-school scholarships available for cancer survivors.
• Help for graduates and young professionals: Our team can help you think about work, including decisions about whether to work during treatment, how to gain work skills or apply for work after treatment.

When your cancer treatment is being planned, one thing to consider is how it will affect your fertility. We will discuss the risk of infertility, any options available for you and assist you with the process of preserving your fertility. Find out more about fertility preservation. After treatment is finished we will continue to address this, helping assess your hormone levels and fertility as a survivor.

Emotional and mental health support

Cancer is never something you can plan on, and it can be tough on your mental health. That's why we offer dedicated mental health support for processing your diagnosis, coping with uncertainty, planning for the future and survivorship. Our team is avaialable to you at all times and includes a dedicated AYA:

• Psychologist to listen and provide tools for coping with your distress
• Child life specialist to educate you about your diagnosis and treatments, and support you during procedures
• Social worker to help you communicate with your school, navigate finances and insurance, and identify resources to assist with cancer-related transportation, lodging, family medical leave and more

We also offer a get together called AYA group, because having cancer can make you feel different from the rest of your friends. Even when they mean well, they don't always understand what you're going through. To help you with these challenges, we facilitate a monthly AYA peer group via Zoom led by our child life specialist and psychologist. Topics are determined by what the group feels is relevant at the time. These Zoom sessions allow you to have a safe space to connect with your peers who have been through similar experiences.

In addition, our child life specialist offers weekly groups in the AYA lounge as a time to connect with people your own age, relax and have a little fun during treatment. 

As a Cook Children's AYA patient, you have access to all types of programs while you're in patient here 

• Quarterly Cook Children's AYA events: Our child life specialist and AYA team activites ranging from a meal out to a rooftop movie night
• Community events: We'll let you know of any community events happening in the DFW area for AYAs, such as, events sponsored by Cancer Care Services, FWAYA, Rutledge Cancer Foundation and many other foundations or sponsors.
• National events: The National AYA organizations often plan activites too. You can join via Zoom and particiapte in yofa events by Elephants and Tea, Lego ® workshops by Cactus Cancer Society or outdoor adventures with Camp Mak-a-Dream or First Descents. 

You're not your cancer and we want to keep reminding you that and help you stay active by participating in things you love and new adventures. 

Your Cook Children's care team can include a cancer doctor (hematologist-oncologist), nurse practitioner, team nurse, nurse navigator, psychologist, child life specialist and social worker. Some of the cancers that can occur in teens and young adults are rare in a children's hospital. Others may present differently or need altered therapy. Having our very own AYA program means we've specialized in these situations before. We'll make sure you receive individualized therapy, using a team approach that could include working with medical (adult) oncologists or colleagues nationally or finding a unique clinical trial. 

Because we think it’s so important to learn how to improve the cure rates and the quality of life for teens and young adults with a cancer diagnosis, we design and take part in many AYA research projects. Some projects we are currently studying:

• The transition coming off of therapy 
• An AYA specific "distress" thermometer 
• Ways to monitor and predict heart damage from chemo in AYAs 
• The AYA experience