Ten Japanese palliative care professionals visited the University of Colorado Cancer Center on Feb. 7, 2012 to learn about the center's CLIMB program.

Ten palliative care professionals from hospitals across Japan visited the University of Colorado Cancer Center yesterday to learn about CLIMB, a six-week support program for children whose parent or primary caregiver has cancer.

Interested in expanding the Children’s Lives Include Moments of Bravery (CLIMB) program in Japan, the group travelled to Denver to meet with Peter van Dernoot, executive director of Children’s Treehouse Foundation and developer of the CLIMB program. During the visit, the group networked with Cancer Center administrators and heard from a mother whose two sons had participated in the program during her husband’s battle with cancer.

Kaori Osawa, an oncology social worker from Tokyo Kyosai Hospital, was first introduced to the CLIMB program by partners at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since there were no support programs for children in Japan, Osawa travelled to Arizona in May 2010 to participate in a CLIMB training session. Four months later, she launched Japan’s first program.

“I remember Kaori telling me at the training she wanted to launch CLIMB in Tokyo in four months,” van Dernoot says. “Not only did she do it, but the program was an immediate huge success. The kids, parents and government loved it.”

Executive Director of the Children's Treehouse Foundation Peter van Dernoot (far right) and Ben Brewer, PsyD (close) discuss palliative care programs with a visiting practitioner from Japan.

Because of Osawa’s efforts, the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare decided to expand the CLIMB program across Japan and fund the group’s travel to Denver and Portland. The group plans to train other palliative care professionals in Japan so that they can launch additional CLIMB programs throughout the country.

“My hope is that after these trainings, we’ll be able to do six or seven more CLIMB programs in Japan,” says van Dernoot.  “As long as there is a universal scourge of cancer, there will be a need to help children in multiple countries cope with their fears and anxieties about the disease.”