New TYAC Good Practice Guides for health professionals working with teenagers and young adults with cancer

A key role of TYAC is producing good practice guidance for professionals working with teenage and young adults with cancer. The aim of our Good Practice Guides is to provide information, advice and support for providing effective TYA cancer services, and ultimately ensuring the best possible experience for young people with cancer.

Our new Good Practice Guide, 'Bereavement support for young people experiencing the death of peers' aims to raise awareness of the need to address and provide appropriate bereavement support to teenagers and young adults experiencing the death of a friend to cancer.

The ethos of TYA services is to encourage peer support to help TYAs cope with the physical and psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis. Due to the nature of the relationships that are built, and the shared experience that TYAs have, the death of young person within a cancer service can have a significant impact on other young people. This Good Practice Guide looks at current practice, offers suggestions for supportive services, and considers the needs of professionals and staff teams.

We've also published a fully reviewed and updated version of our Good Practice Guide, 'Pregnancy assessment and testing in teenage and young adult females'. The aim of this document is to provide consistent guidance on the process for checking the pregnancy status in TYA undergoing a range of medical procedures. It also provides guidance for the assessment/testing of pregnancy status in TYA under the age of 16 years.

Both Good Practice Guides can be downloaded for free from the TYAC website.