Background: In palliative care contexts, support programs for families with a severely ill parent and minor children are few, and even fewer have been evaluated scientifically. The aims of this study are to examine feasibility and potential effects of a modified version of the Family Talk Intervention (FTI) in palliative care.

Methods: This ongoing family-centered intervention has a quasi-experimental design comparing one intervention and one comparison group. The intervention includes severely ill parents who have minor children (aged 6–19 yrs) and are receiving advanced homecare in Stockholm, Sweden between March 2017 and March 2018. The main goal of the FTI is to support family communication through psycho-education and narrative theory. The modified FTI consists of six meetings with family members, and is held by two interventionists. Each family sets up needs-based goals for the intervention. For evaluation purposes, data are collected by questionnaire before the intervention, within two months after baseline, and one year after baseline. Interviews will be conducted within two months after FTI is completed. Notes taken by one of the interventionists during the family meetings will also be used. Questionnaire data analysis will focus on patterns over time using descriptive statistics. For interview data and notes, content analysis will be used.

Discussion: This study will add knowledge about palliative care for parents who have minor children. It will contribute by testing use of FTI in palliative care, and point out directions for future evaluations of FTI in palliative care settings.

Children's experiences of information and family communication when a parent has a life-threatening illness have been sparsely studied, though such information is important for the child's wellbeing. The aim of this study was to explore children's reports of illness-related information and family communication when living with a parent with a life-threatening illness. Forty-eight children, aged 7 to 19 years, were recruited from four specialized palliative home care units in Stockholm, Sweden. All but one child reported that someone had told them about the parent's life-threatening illness; however, two thirds wanted more information. A quarter of the teenagers reported that they had questions about the illness that they did not dare to ask. Half of the children, aged 8 to 12, reported that they felt partially or completely unable to talk about how they felt or show their feelings to someone in the family. Interventions are needed that promote greater family communication and family-professional communication.

The aim with this study was to explore minor children’s experiences of the Family Talk Intervention (FTI) when a parent is cared for in palliative home care, with a focus on feasibility. The main goal of FTI is to increase family communication about the illness. This paper is based on 25 children’s reports, derived from a pilot study with a mixed method design, involving both questionnaires and interviews, performed after the children’s participation. A majority of the children appreciated the structure and content of FTI. They felt seen, heard and acknowledged by the interventionists and recommended FTI to other children in similar situations.

Having a parent with a life-threatening illness is challenging throughout the illness trajectory, and for some also in bereavement. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states a child’s right to express their opinion and have it respected in processes that affect them. The aim of this paper were to examine the child’s active participation in a family support programme, the Family Talk Intervention, in accordance with Article 12, when having a parent cared for in palliative care. Twenty families with 50 children participated. Fieldnotes were taken during the programme and later analysed with interpretive descriptions.The study shows that all children were listened to, but only a quarter reached the minimum point required in Article 12, where their views were taken into account. The Family Talk Intervention in palliative care would benefit from implementing a child-centred approach in order for all children to be active participants.

Background: Children show long-term psychological distress if family communication and illness-related information are poor during and after a parent’s illness and death. Few psychosocial interventions for families with minor children living with a parent who has a life-threatening illness have been evaluated rigorously. Even fewer interventions have been family-centered. One exception is the Family Talk Intervention (FTI), which has shown promising results regarding increased illness-related knowledge and improved family communication. However, FTI has not yet been evaluated in palliative care. This study therefore aimed to explore the potential effects of FTI from the perspectives of minor children whose parent is cared for in specialized palliative home care.

Methods: This pilot intervention study involves questionnaire and interview data collected from children after participation in FTI. Families were recruited from two specialized palliative home care units. To be included, families must include one parent with life-threatening illness, at least one child aged 6–19 years, and understand and speak Swedish. Twenty families with a total of 34 children participated in FTI; 23 children answered the questionnaire, and 22 were interviewed after participation.

Results: The children reported that FTI increased their knowledge about their parents’ illness. They said the interventionist helped them to handle school-related problems, establish professional counselling, and find strength to maintain everyday life. Children aged 8–12 reported that talking with their parents became easier after FTI, whereas communication was unchanged for teenagers and between siblings. Children also reported having been helped to prepare for the future, and that they benefitted from advice about how to maintain everyday life and minimize conflicts within the family.

Conclusions: Children who participated in FTI reported that it was helpful in many ways, providing illness-related information and improving family communication when a parent has a life-threatening illness. Other potential positive effects reported by the children were that FTI facilitated their preparation for the future, decreased family conflicts, and started to build up resilience.