Problem

Children of somatically ill parents are an identified risk group for mental problems. Epidemiologically, parental cancer is by far the foremost illness group. To date, the systematic inclusion of underage children in psychosocial care concepts for adult cancer patients is lacking. Although several initiatives towards specific psychosocial support for cancer patients’ children have been started in Germany in the past few years, these existing services have yet to undergo systematic quality assurance and evaluation. Moreover, there is a lack of empirically grounded indication criteria for preventive interventions; this is of economic significance, as blanket service for all underage children of cancer patients is neither sensible nor realistic.

Goals and Projects

Based on the extensive work achieved in the multi-center EU project „Children of Somatically Ill Parents (COSIP, 2002-2005) initiated and coordinated by the principal submitter, empirically grounded indication criteria for preventive psychosocial interventions for this population will be determined by eight cooperating partner institutions in five locations throughout Germany. In addition, the current state of (widely heterogeneous) services for children of cancer patients in Germany will be analyzed with consideration to future demand planning. Furthermore, the Hamburg COSIP Counseling Concept for families with a critically somatically ill parent, which has been clinically tested, quality-assured and published as a practice handbook, will be implemented and formatively and summatively evaluated in various specific contexts of psychosocial services for cancer patients. In multi-center consensus, this practice handbook will undergo further development to design a collectively authorized, standardized intervention manual for a complex psychosocial intervention, which will be used in future randomized controlled intervention studies. In preparation for the multi-center intervention studies, a controlled model intervention study will be carried out in Hamburg, where the concept is already in implementation. Developing the manual will include the design of specific modules for a series of situations and constellations met in practice. This will involve each location treating a specific focus and leading the development of one context-specific intervention module. All partner centers will work in close cooperation towards the collective development of model implementation strategies for broader service coverage in this innovative field. The methodic quality of the entire network project will be assured by a methods center, which will accompany and coordinate the subprojects. On top of this, generic evaluation of interventions in all partner centers will be undertaken.

The current project phase is initially planned for three years, at the end of which preliminary practice guidelines for the quality-assured psychosocial support of cancer patients’ children will be provided to the professional community.

Within the framework of the network project, subprojects will treat specific problems on location in Berlin, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Magdeburg. Each subprojects has its own project description; these are accessible in the left menu bar.