OBJECTIVE: One of the main goals of the Family Talk Intervention (FTI) is to increase communication within families with dependent children about illness-related consequences and to support parenting. FTI is family-centered and includes six manual-based meetings led by two interventionists. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of the FTI in terms of acceptability from the perspective of parents in families with dependent children where one parent receives specialized palliative home care.

METHOD: A descriptive design employing mixed methods was used to evaluate the FTI in specialized palliative home care. In total, 29 parents participated in interviews and responded to a questionnaire following FTI. Qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics were used for analyses.

RESULTS: FTI responded to both the ill parent's and the healthy co-parent's expectations, and they recommended FTI to other families. Parents found the design of FTI to be well-structured and flexible according to their families' needs. Many parents reported a wish for additional meetings and would have wanted FTI to start earlier in the disease trajectory. Parents also would have wished for a more thorough briefing with the interventionists to prepare before the start. The importance of the interventionists was acknowledged by the parents; their professional competence, engagement, and support were vital for finding ways to open communication within the family. The FTI meetings provided them with a setting to share thoughts and views. Parents clearly expressed that they would never have shared thoughts and feelings in a similar way without the meetings.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: According to parents, FTI was found acceptable in a palliative home care context with the potential to add valuable support for families with minor children when a parent is suffering from a life-threatening illness.

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.

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.

AIM: To estimate whether and when children dying from a malignancy are recognized as being beyond cure and to study patterns of care the last weeks of life.

METHODS: A nationwide retrospective medical record review was conducted. Medical records of 95 children (60% of eligible children) who died from a malignancy 2007-2009 in Sweden were studied.

RESULTS: Eighty-three children (87%) were treated without curative intent at the time of death. Children with haematological malignancies were less likely to be recognized as being beyond cure than children with brain tumours [relative risks (RR) 0.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.6-0.9] or solid tumours (RR 0.8; 0.6-1.0). The transition to noncurative care varied from the last day of life to over four years prior to death (median 60 days). Children with haematological malignancies were treated with a curative intent closer to death and were also given chemotherapy (RR 5.5; 1.3-22.9), transfusions (RR 2.0; 1.0-4.0) and antibiotics (RR 5.3; 1.8-15.5) more frequently than children with brain tumours the last weeks of life.

CONCLUSION: The majority of children dying from a malignancy were treated with noncurative intent at the time of death. The timing of a transition in care varied with the diagnoses, being closer to death in children with haematological malignancies.

Open and honest communication has been identified as an important factor in providing good palliative care. However, there is no easy solution to if, when, and how parents and a dying child should communicate about death. This article reports how bereaved parents communicated about death with their child, dying from a malignancy. Communication was often initiated by the child and included communication through narratives such as fairy tales and movies and talking more directly about death itself. Parents also reported that their child prepared for death by giving instructions about his or her grave or funeral and giving away toys.

BACKGROUND: We studied the relation between unrelieved symptoms in terminally ill children and the psychological well-being in the bereaved parents 4-9 years after their loss.

PROCEDURE: We contacted parents in Sweden who had lost a child to a malignancy 1992-1997. The parents were asked to assess symptoms affecting their child's well-being during his or her last month of life, and their own current psychological well-being.

RESULTS: Altogether 449/561 (80%) eligible parents supplied information on 19 specific symptoms that may occur in children with a malignancy and how each of these symptoms had affected their child's well-being during his or her last month of life (not applicable, none, low, moderate, or severe). These results were linked to questions concerning the parents' self-assessed mental health. Parents of children who were affected by disturbed sleep also had increased risk to develop these symptoms; RR 2.0 [1.4-2.9] for depression, 1.8 [1.3-2.5] for anxiety, 1.5 [1.2-1.8] for decreased psychological well-being, and 1.5 [1.3-1.9] for decreased quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS: Bereaved parents whose children were affected by anxiety or disturbed sleep due to anxiety or pain had an increased risk of long-term psychological morbidity. Reducing psychological complications in seriously ill children may also improve the psychological well-being in bereaved parents.

OBJECTIVE: In a population-based nationwide survey, we aimed to study symptoms in children with malignancies during the last month of their lives. Understanding which symptoms affect children in the terminal phase of disease is crucial to improve palliative care.

METHODS: We attempted to contact all parents in Sweden who had lost a child to cancer during a 6-year period. The parents were asked, through an anonymous postal questionnaire, about symptoms that affected the child's sense of well-being during the last month of life.

RESULTS: Information was supplied by 449 (80%) of 561 eligible parents. The symptoms most frequently reported with high or moderate impact on the child's well-being were: physical fatigue (86%), reduced mobility (76%), pain (73%), and decreased appetite (71%). Irrespective of the specific malignancy, physical fatigue was the most frequently reported symptom, and pain was among the 3 most frequently reported. Children who died at 9 to 15 years of age were reported to be moderately or severely affected, by a number of symptoms, significantly more often than other children. The gender of the reporting parent had no significant bearing on any of the symptoms reported.

CONCLUSIONS: The most frequently reported symptoms in children with malignancies to be aware of and possibly address during the terminal phase are physical fatigue, reduced mobility, pain, and decreased appetite. Children aged 9 to 15 years are reported to be moderately or severely affected by more symptoms than children in other age groups. Mothers and fathers report a similar prevalence of symptoms.

AIM: One in five children diagnosed with cancer will die from the disease. Few studies have focused on how children with cancer want to receive bad news, such as when no more treatment options are available, and that was the aim of this study.

METHODS: We conducted individual interviews with ten children with cancer, aged seven to 17 years, at a single paediatric oncology unit in central Sweden. Interviews were audiotaped and analysed with systematic text condensation. Bad news was defined as information about a potentially fatal outcome, such as a disease relapse, or information that the treatment administered was no longer working and that there was no more treatment possible.

RESULTS: All children expressed that they wanted truthful information, and they did not want to be excluded from bad news regarding their illness. They wanted to be informed as positively as possible, allowing them to maintain hope, and in words that they could understand. They also wanted to receive any bad news at the same time as their parents.

CONCLUSION: Children with cancer want to be fully informed about their disease, but they also wanted it to be relayed as positively as possible so that they could stay hopeful. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION: Siblings of children with cancer experience psychosocial distress during the illness and after bereavement, but often stand outside the spotlight of attention and care. This study explored bereaved siblings' advice to health care professionals (HCPs) working with children with cancer and their families.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a nationwide Swedish survey of bereaved siblings, 174/240 (73%) participated. Of these, 108 answered an open-ended question about what advice they would give to HCPs working with children with cancer and their families. In this study, responses to this single question were analyzed using content analysis.

RESULTS: The most common advice, suggested by 56% of siblings, related to their own support. One third suggested giving better medical information to siblings. Some siblings wanted to be more practically involved in their brother's/sister's care and suggested that HCPs should give parents guidance on how to involve siblings. Other common advice related to psychosocial aspects, such as the siblings' wish for HCPs to mediate hope, yet also realism, and the importance of asking the ill child about what care they wanted.

CONCLUSION: Information, communication, and involvement should be emphasized by HCPs to support siblings' psychosocial needs in both the health care setting and within the family.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine siblings' experiences of their brother's or sister's cancer death and if these experiences influenced levels of anxiety 2-9 years later.

METHODS: This nationwide survey was conducted in Sweden in 2009. All siblings who had a brother/sister who was diagnosed with cancer before the age of 17 years and who died before the age of 25 years during 2000-2007 were invited. Of those, 174 siblings participated (participation rate: 73%). Mixed data from the survey about the siblings' experiences of death were included as well as data from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. To examine the experiences, descriptive statistics and content analysis were used. Mann-Whitney U-test was conducted to investigate if the experiences influenced anxiety 2-9 years later.

RESULTS: The siblings reported poor knowledge and experienced a lack of communication about their brother's/sister's death, for example, about the time frame, bodily changes near death, and about their own experiences. Siblings who reported that no one talked with them about what to expect when their brother/sister was going to die reported higher levels of anxiety 2-9 years after the loss. Seventy percent reported that they witnessed their brother/sister suffering in the last hours in life. Many of those who were not present during the illness period and at the time of death expressed regret.

CONCLUSION: It is important to prepare siblings for their brother's/sister's illness and death as it may decrease anxiety and regrets later on. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.