Children losing a parent

Every day about 3.300 Swedish children lose a parent of cancer and other diseases. A cancer diagnosis in a parent has a major impact on many aspects of the life of both the patient and other family members, especially for children who are still dependent on their parents. Psychological reactions such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, bad concentration and difficulties in school are seen in the child through all stages of disease and treatment of the parent. Forced physical separation from a parent are often stressful for a child in the short and the long term.

Children have the ability to cope with reality with an open and direct manner. Children who have open communication with their parents suffer less anxiety and depression after the parent's death. However, studies show that some parents may be afraid to inform their children about illness and death, and may not have the strength to be the necessary support for the child in the situation. Parents act in different ways regarding including and excluding their children in the disease course. Some parents excluded their children from matters related to the illness and forthcoming death. Those parents often believed that successfully maintaining normalcy and not communicating about the illness would protect their children from the emotional impact of cancer. It seems to be important that healthcare professionals can identify the individual child’s needs for support and information. Nevertheless, studies have shown that some healthcare professionals are unaware of the children of the patients in their meetings in clinical practice. Further, studies have also shown that parents are gatekeepers of the children?s interactions and physical meetings with the healthcare professionals when a parent was seriously ill.

Immediately, there are challenges for the meeting between healthcare professional and children as relatives, which is embedded in administrative, industrial and political structures of the organization. There are different political visions and responsibilities placed on healthcare professionals, but resources are often limited and insufficient. Thus, healthcare professionals have to prioritize their tasks while they are working in an organization and as a profession, which is historically marked by medical traditions, and priorities where the interest of patient and their disease often prevails. There is spare knowledge about how different professions work with children who has a patient with a palliative cancer diagnosis. The study aims to explore 1) professionals’ work in advanced palliative home care regarding children as relatives of cancer patients, and 2) how intervention programs for children and young people as well as the surviving parent are presented, planned and implemented, as well as the importance it has for children / young people, parents and health care professionals.