Assistance to parents who have lost their child with cancer

Aims and background: To assess the psychological needs of parents after the death of their child from cancer. Methods: The study comprises a preliminary retrospective phase to identify parents who spontaneously contacted the medical staff, followed by a prospective phase in which families were contacted by telephone and were invited to a meeting. Results: The retrospective study demonstrated that more than 50% of the families spontaneously sought contact with the department. In the prospective study, 17 families were contacted and the majority of them subsequently decided to come to the department for a talk. Conclusions: Our experience shows that parents have a strong need to have further contact with the team that took care of their children for months. In the process of coping with bereavement, anxiety and depression are common and not necessarily pathological, though there may be psychopathological reactions that can interfere with the parents' quality of life.