End-of-life parental communication priorities among bereaved fathers due to cancer

How parents of dependent children reason about their partner's impending death due to cancer

This paper explores how bereaved parents with dependent children reasoned about their partner's impending death due to cancer. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 42 cancer-bereaved parents of dependent children in Sweden. The results showed that most of the parents had thought, at least once, that death would be best for their partner's own sake. A few parents had also thought that it would be best for everyone if their partner died. Many parents had a wish to keep up hope, no matter what. However, living with a partner with advanced illness and dependent children was described as extremely stressful.

Australian Hospital-Based Parenting Support for Adults with Incurable End-Stage Cancer: Parent Perspectives

Parenting support needs of patients diagnosed with incurable end-stage cancer (IESC) with young families are not addressed as part of routine hospital health care. Their support needs and experiences of hospital-based parenting support are largely unknown. The study aims to explore hospital-based parenting support delivery from patient and co-parent perspectives in context to their parenting experience and support needs. Exploratory, prospective, cross-sectional qualitative design. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight adult patients with IESC and four co-parents purposively recruited from a tertiary hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Findings were thematically analyzed. Parents desire support with challenging multidimensional parenting issues. Organization, health professionals (HP), and parental-based factors hinder and facilitate optimal service provision. Responsibility rests with HP to initiate parenting support. Interdisciplinary family-focused support offered throughout IESC health-care journey is key. Patient-centered family-focused support is warranted. Surmountable challenges lie with management and HPs to address barriers affecting optimal service delivery.