title: [Psychological care in pediatric oncology: patients, family, and personnel (author's transl)].
abstract: The improved outlook in many pediatric tumour and leukemia patients has brought about new psychological problems: we no longer have to focus our attention only on death and its implications, but also on the impact of aggressive multimodal therapy, of remission and relapse, of permanent cure alas sometimes paid for by lasting physical defects. There are relatively few "hard" physical data, based on controlled studies, concerning the reactions of the patients themselves and of their environment to the different phases of cancer in children, but certain empirical findings, based on clinical observations and the work of some interested psychologists, allow a number of conclusions to be drawn. The reactions of children to a life-threatening disease and to the possibility of death are mostly age-dependent; parents' reactions, as a rule, follow certain typical patterns superimposed by individual particularities (initial shock, non-acceptance and escape; finally, ways of coping) which ought to be taken into account by the medical and nursing team. The ability to convey hope and trust, competence, self-confidence, emotional stability and continuous personal engagement of those who treat such children are of paramount importance in minimizing psychological damage. Organized group discussions may sometimes be of additional help.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: Die seelische Betreuung des onkologisch kranken Kindes und seiner Eltern.