Leidtragende Kinder von krebserkrankten Eltern – wie entlasten?

Every year, around 50,000 children are newly confronted with the oncological diagnosis of a parent. The risk of developing clinically relevant anxiety, depression, and higher stress levels increases significantly for these children. Parents usually want to protect their children from all evil, including confrontation with their own illness. Children have strong antennae for the unspoken. Children and adolescents quickly associate contexts with themselves. They try to adapt and avoid worrying as much as possible, which is compensated for elsewhere. Parental illness has a strong impact on children’s emotional, social, and psychological wellbeing.

The aim was to establish a service to provide families and their children with the best possible support. Problem-oriented coping seems to protect the child even more than emotion-oriented strategies. Six key components are at the forefront: 1) providing children with age-appropriate information about their parent’s cancer; 2) supporting family communication; 3) reducing feelings of isolation through peer support; 4) providing a space to share feelings; 5) individualized support; 6) specialized grief counseling where appropriate.

The counseling and support service “Taking the heavy burden off small shoulders” covers the key components mentioned above. Families and their children are supported from the initial diagnosis onwards, in the further possible phases of the illness, and beyond death. The life situation of families, especially children and adolescents, is supported and stabilized and stress symptoms are minimized.

This work makes an important and preventative contribution to ensuring psychosocial care for children and adolescents of oncologically ill parents and to minimizing the development of psychological problems in children and adolescents.