Mary Burns

"Keeping them connected: Developing and evaluating an online education support framework for adolescent cancer survivors, their parents and educators."

As survival rates increase, child and adolescent cancer survivors are returning to the classroom after periods of school absence, grappling with physical and psychological late-effects affecting their ability to learn, and interrupting socio-emotional development. Recent psychosocial standards of care have highlighted the priority of facilitating young cancer survivors’ academic continuity and school re-entry. Yet, Australia does not meet these standards, with multifaceted barriers to educational support, including non-adherence to legislation and un-standardised support services. My PhD project will address this gap by developing an online framework and resources to support the education of adolescent cancer patients and survivors, their parents and educators, by 1) determining the needs of framework users; 2) Developing an online resource and 3) validating the online resource. This research will bring Australia up to international psychosocial standards of care, by creating a clinically relevant online resource that is ecologically valid and acceptable to users.

Selected Publications

Lum, A., Wakefield, C. E., Donnan, B., Burns, M. A. B., Fardell, J. E., Jaffe, A., Kasparian, N. A., Kennedy, S. E., Leach, S. T., Lemberg, D. A., & Marshall, G. M. Facilitating engagement with school in students with chronic illness through positive education: A mixed-methods comparison study. School Psychology Quarterly. Accepted for publication
Lum, A., Wakefield, C.E., Donnan, B., Burns, M.A.B., Fardell, J.E., Jaffe, A., Kasparian, N.A., Kennedy, S.E., Leach, S.T., Lemberg, D.A., Marshall, G.M., School students with chronic illness have unmet academic, social, and emotional needs. Accepted by School Psychology Quarterly 20 December 2018
Ellis, S. J., Fardell, J. E., Wakefield, C. E., Schilstra, C. E., Burns, M. A., Donnan, B., Walwyn, T., Lum, A., Marshall, G., Carter, A., Barton, B., & Cohn, R. J. Are we meeting the training needs of healthcare and education professionals supporting children with cancer in their return to school? [Letter to the editor]. Pediatric Blood and Cancer. Accepted for publication 16 November, 2018.