Parental cancer poses psychosocial challenges for parents and their adolescent and young adult (AYA) children, with common concerns including confidence in parenting ability and communication about cancer with their AYA children. To address this, a novel cross-sector service (Parent Support Worker; PSW) supporting parent-patients, their partners, and AYA children was implemented and evaluated in three Australian hospitals. This project explored the effectiveness of the PSW service, parent satisfaction, and the impact of the service on families.
Along with high levels of parent-reported satisfaction, the PSW service was found to be effective in improving parents’ psychosocial and parenting outcomes. The number of parents experiencing high or very high distress dropped by more than half - from 56% pre-service to 25% post-service. These findings provide evidence for the clinical utility and need for integrated, cross-sector care to support families impacted by cancer.
We have closed enrolment in the study.