Background

Starlight Moments is an innovative Australian program that supports palliative children, adolescents and their families through the provision of on-going, tailored, positive experiences or “Moments”. Run by a national non-profit whose work with seriously ill children is grounded in positive psychology, the program is designed to provide experiences specific to that family’s needs and interests, promoting positive emotions and resilience.

Aims

Moments' aim is to create meaningful memories, increase family connection and support resilience through the on-going delivery of small, but significant, positive moments.

Method

Positive psychology theory has been identified as being useful when aiming to improve the overall health and well-being of people living with a chronic illness or disability (Ghosh and Deb 2017). Yet with limited research in the area of positive psychology and pediatric palliative care, Starlight undertook to investigate and formally document any correlation between the Moments program and positive psychology theory, specifically seeking to identifying alignment with Seligman’s PERMA model (2002). The PERMA model was chosen as it is holistic, multi-dimensional and empirically validated. Research also indicates it has applicability to young people (Kern, Waters, Adler and White 2014). A mixed-methods approach included the use of previous evaluation materials, interviews and document review.

Results

Findings demonstrated the program related closely to each principle of PERMA.  Key stakeholders, including the families and palliative care workers, consistently confirmed the positive emotions created by the delivery of the Moments, the opportunities for promoting strong relationships and more meaningful connections, development of greater resilience, and perhaps most surprisingly, feelings of hope and accomplishment as a result of involvement in the program.

Conclusion

This presentation will outline the Starlight Moments program, share findings from the study and provide illustrative examples of the PERMA model. It will demonstrate the design and approach of the program as relevant not just for palliative children/adolescents and family members, but with broader possibilities for those with serious health conditions or wellbeing issues.