Posters

Background/Purpose: The focus of this submission is to highlight satisfaction and psychosocial outcomes of a weekend-long bereavement program.The Retreat of Renewal (RoR) is a free-of-cost "camp" that provides psychosocial support to families whose children died during treatment at our institution's cancer center.Approximately six families-including all siblings and primary caregivers of the deceased child-are invited each year.To our knowledge, this is the only program of its kind, which highlights the results significance to the field of psychosocial oncology.RoR is held at a recreational camp facility.Programming includes physical and family-focused activities, family member-specific support groups, and remembrance activities.A team of multidisciplinary health care providers facilitates RoR.Methods: Attendees aged 7 and above were invited to complete paper questionnaires upon arrival at RoR (T1) and again at the end of the weekend (T2).Of the 22 eligible participants, 86% (N = 19) completed the T1 measure, and 100% completed the T2 measure.Information was collected about family members' cancer type and time since their death.Data were analyzed via independent t tests.Results: Across most domains, improvements in perceived psychosocial functioning were found at T2 compared to T1.Interestingly, participants experienced a T2 decline in perceived ability to talk with both friends and family members about their grief.Participants' satisfaction in the weekend programming was collected. Conclusions and Implications:Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of a unique program in providing bereaved families with psychosocial support.In the future, it would be helpful to collect data at another time point to assess if participants have continued to benefit from their experiences at RoR.Nonetheless, results are promising.It may be beneficial for other hospitals or community-based agencies to offer similar retreats for families experiencing cancer-related bereavement.