COPE
teaches parents how their child might react to being
hospitalized and then instructs parents on how to best
respond to their child’s needs. Evaluation o f t his i nter-vention h as been positive f or parents of children who
e xp er i en c e h os pi t al iza t i on f o r a n ac ute c on di tio n. Pa re nt s
who have participated in the COPE intervention have
reported decreased levels of stress and anxiety, fewer
d e pr ess i ve sy mp toms, a nd inc r ea se d c o nfi den c e i n t hei r
parenting abilities when compared with parents who
did not participate in t he intervention (Melny k & Alpert-Gillis, 1998; Melnyk et al., 2004, 1997). Families of
children with neurological conditions need to learn
how to adapt to the stress associated with living with
an uncertain prognosis and repeat hospitalizations,
procedures, and appointments. The role of the parent
to facilitate coping in their child does not end with
the hospitalization. Instead, parent education regard-ing how to facilitate coping in their child needs to be
reinforced on an ongoing basis and each time t he child
is faced with additional hospitalizatio ns or procedures.
The COPE i nterventio n h as the potential t o be usefu l
among this chronically ill population b ecause it teache s