Losing a parent to cancer as a teenager - Family cohesion, grief, long-term health and wellbeing and the Swedish Palliative Care Guide

Family cohesion, including warmth and connection between the surviving parent and the bereaved children as well as the mental health of the surviving parent are factors that seem to have the greatest impact on bereaved children's wellbeing. Limited evidence is available on the impact bereavement has on the family as a unit as well as the effect on the teenagers long term health and wellbeing, especially from their own perspectives.

There is also a shortage of formal support to children and their families that have lost their parent in clinical practice. To be able to support bereaved children and adolescents in an efficient way, it is important to get a clearer picture on factors in their environment that affects their long-term health and wellbeing, to get more knowledge on their need for support as well as to create routines in clinical practice that attends to their needs.

The aim of this study is to investigate acute and long-term grief and family cohesion as perceived by young adults (age 18-26) that have faced a death of a parent, as teenagers (age 13 to 16), and its association with long-term health and wellbeing as well as interactions with health-care. Also, develop a comprehensive clinical guidance for holistic care of patients with palliative care needs, which includes structured support for health care personal to identify children as next of kin and their need for information and support.

Hopefully the results will contribute to bridging the existing knowledge gap and furthermore give opportunity to better respond to the unmet needs of parentally bereaved children.