"Why my parent is ill?" A specific, multidisciplinary intervention to enhance comunication to cancer patients' children

Background: Different studies underline the efficacy of an open communication with children about the parent’s illness to reduce the family distress and the difficulties of parents to explain their illness to children. This multidisciplinary intervention is addressed to cancer patients and their underage children. Aims of the project are: - to inform improving the children’s knowledge of their parent’s cancer, - to facilitate children coping with the illness, - to enhance parents’ competence and communication about cancer in the family. Methods: At the beginning of the parent’s cancer treatment, the pediatric hemato-oncologist and the psychologist, without parents’ presence, explain to children, with the support of metaphors and images, the parent’s disease and understand their needs. Then counseling sessions to parents are organized to increase the parental competence. To evaluate the intervention it has been realized a specific questionnaire, administered to parents 9 months after the communication to children, that describes the family atmosphere, the parents’ satisfaction, the level of communication and the children’s psychological conditions after the intervention. Results: since 2012 33 families participated in the program. Preliminary and partial analyses of 27 questionnaires underline the presence of more collaboration (18.5% totally, 40.7% very, 29.6% quite and 11.2% no more) in the family and the parents’ satisfaction (33.3% very satisfied and 66.7% extremely). 63% of parents showed that in their family, after the intervention, it was totally possible to have an open communication about the cancer. Regards children’s conditions the majority of parents noted that their sons weren’t more irritable (55.6% never, 25.9% rarely, 7.4% sometimes and 11.1% often), anguished (70.4% never, 18.5% rarely, 7.4% sometimes, 3.7% often), depressed (92.6% never, 7.4% rarely) and that children didn’t have more aggressive behaviors (81.5% never, 11.1% rarely, 3.7% sometimes, 3.7% often). Conclusions: The project shows the advantages of the direct engagement of children in the communication of parent’s cancer to facilitate the relationship and to reduce the family distress.