“Stepping Stones” Support Group
Offers separate groups for families of hospitalized bone marrow transplant patients and for patients and families who are six months post-treatment (“Stepping Stones”).
Family support group meetings are the second Monday of each month, noon – 1 p.m.
Steeping Stones meets at various times.
Contact: (410) 502-5395.
Caregivers Support Group
Location: Bain Center, 5470 Beaverkill Road, Columbia
Contact: Barbara Miller, (410) 313-7467
Drop-In Support Group:
This group is designed for people caring for a loved one with cancer and offers a safe place to air concerns, and receive support and advice. The group is facilitated by Mary M. Dowling, LCSW, who maintains an individual practice in conjunction with Healing Point, LLC. Registration is preferred but walk-ins are welcome. Free.
Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of each month, 7-8:30 pm.
Contact: 410-964-9100 x5
Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation
Candlelighters provides families of children with cancer and adult cancer survivors with support and information. It has an international network of support groups, locally sponsored summer camps, emergency funding and other resources to help those in need.
Contact: 1 (800) 366-2223.
Compassionate Friends
Adult family members are invited to participate in a support group which meets at the same time as the Kid's Circle. Facilitated by a licensed psychotherapist, this group offers an opportunity to network with other adult family members regarding issues of communication and support during their children’s cancer recovery.
Brooklandville, MD
Contact: Jeff Klug, (410) 832-2719 (The Wellness Community)
Holiday Youth Group
Provides bereavement services for children needing extra support to cope with the first holiday season after the death of a loved one. Services include one-on-one volunteer support, referral for professional counseling and bereavement groups.
Specific groups include Grief Recovery (for those who have experienced death of a loved one other than a spouse), Widowed Persons Group (for those whose spouse has died), Reunion Groups (for those who have completed a Widowed Persons Group), My Turn (for children 7-12 who have experienced death of a loved one), Teens, Loss, and Hoping (for youth 12-17 who have experienced death of a loved one), Parent Group (for parents of children in Teen or My Turn groups), Holiday Group (for adults needing support coping with the first December holidays after death of a loved one), Holiday Youth Group (for children needing extra support coping with the first December holidays after death of a loved one).
Hospice of Howard County, Columbia
Contact: (410) 730-5072
Jewish Family Services (
http://www.jfs.org/)
Provides counseling for individuals, children, couples and families. It also provides eldercare consultation, mental health services, home care, support groups, teen services and educational programs.
Location: Gorman Building, Columbia
Contact: (410) 466-4636
Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic (
http://midatlantic.wish.org/)
Nonprofit foundation that grants wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses. Operates Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Location: Kensington, MD
Contact: (301) 962-9474
National Cancer Institute Pediatric Oncology Branch (
http://home.ccr.cancer.gov/oncology/pediatric/)
Provides patients, families and physicians with an overview of the type of treatments available for children with cancer. It informs children and families about research conducted at the Pediatric Oncology Branch.
Contact: (301) 496-4256 or (877) 624-4878
Special Love (
www.speciallove.org/)
A program that offers children with cancer a chance to enjoy normal activities – to laugh, run, jump, swim, learn and make friends. It offers cancer families a support network of other patients and families who know and understand the trials and triumphs of fighting cancer.
Winchester, VA
Contact: 1 (888) 930-2707
Steven Daniel Jeffreys Foundation
A nonprofit foundation sponsoring bereavement counseling for children and parents of children who have lost a loved one.
Columbia, MD
Contact: (410) 730-3310
The Kid's Circle, Teen's Circle and Family Circle
The Kid's Circle program is for children ages five to 13 who have a parent, grandparent, sibling or other loved one with cancer. Children play, draw and make new friends in a home-like environment with emphasis on learning about change, feelings, new coping skills and boosting self-esteem. Facilitated by a licensed psychotherapist, The Teen's Circle is for teens 13 to18 who have a friend or family member with cancer. It provides an opportunity to meet other teens and, through special activities, share the issues they face when there is cancer in the family.
Contact: (410) 832-2719
Women's Reproductive Cancers Group
For women who have been diagnosed with ovarian, cervical or any other reproductive cancer.
Call for meeting times, as schedule varies from month to month.
Contact: (410) 832-2719
Patients Lost Chord Club of Maryland, Inc.
This non-profit organization provides rehabilitation for people who have had their larynxes removed.
Meeting: fourth Sunday of each month at 2 p.m.
Operates Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Speech classes are held every Tuesday from 7-8 p.m.
Contact: (410) 644-9490 (24 hours a day)
Man to Man
An education and support program to help men cope with prostate cancer. It offers a forum for men to learn about diagnosis and treatment options and quality of life issues from specialists in the field and to receive peer support from others who have experienced prostate cancer.
Location: Howard County General Hospital Wellness Center
Meetings: 3rd Thursday of each month, 7-9:30 p.m.
Contact: (410) 740-7601
American Foundation for Urologic Disease
Provides information, local support groups, counseling and educational meetings for men with prostate cancer.
Contact: 1 (800) 878-7866