Managing Cancer as a Family Disease-Feasibility, Satisfaction and Family Functioning after Short-Time Counselling for Families with Parental Cancer

Background: Parental cancer affects not only the patient, but all family members. Access to psychological support for the entire family is highly relevant, but still scarce. The aim of the present research project was to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a short-term counselling intervention for families with parental cancer. Methods: The short-term counselling intervention consisted of six sessions and was developed based on pre-existing evaluated concepts. All participating family members had to complete questionnaires prior and post-intervention. These questionnaires investigated changes in family communication and satisfaction levels, parental anxiety and depression levels, parental partnership quality and self-assessed quality of life of children and adolescents. Furthermore, feasibility of and satisfaction with the intervention was assessed. Results: Acceptability of short-term counselling was high in participating families, although feasibility was limited with regard to the final inclusion rate (n = 10). Comparison of pre and post intervention measures showed a significant increase in family communication and satisfaction levels. Anxiety and depression levels were low, quality of parental partnership within the normal range, and quality of life reported from children was high. These scores remained stable from pre to post intervention. Conclusions: The counselling intervention most likely had positive effects in all family members with either stabilizing or increasing all measured outcomes. Although interpretation of the results is limited due to the small sample size, we believe that integrated in clinical routine of adult care of a hospital, this additional offer might be a valuable benefice to cancer patients and their families.

Automated summary

The study developed a short-term counselling intervention for families with parental cancer, finding high acceptance and significant improvements in family communication and satisfaction levels. Parental anxiety and depression were low, parental partnership quality was normal, and children reported high quality of life.