Family Counselling and Communication in Children with Complex CHD

The vital importance of good communication between medical and/or surgical teams, patients, and their families cannot be overemphasized. The field of congenital cardiology often encompasses a comprehensive plan of care over a lifetime, starting from fetal life and reaching up to elderly age. The wide variety and complexity of this field necessitate a delicate and systematic approach which should be tailored and individualized to particular needs of these patients. The wide spectrum of personal, social, cultural, and religious backgrounds of patients mandates a flexible and a stepwise approach for revealing the information. The experience of the physician and the adjunctive healthcare team plays a major role in delivering the right messages at the right time. The treating teams should always bear in their minds that families often have many vulnerabilities that could easily result in communication failures. Therefore, extreme patience should be maintained while carrying out patient and family counselling in children with complex congenital heart disease (CHD). This chapter will present briefly key issues and practical aspects in regard to family counselling and communication in this particular group of patients.