Family Talk Intervention in the Context of Specialised Palliative Home Care

Ersta Sköndal University College

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Terminal Illness

Treatments: Other: Family Talk Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT05365919

Marie Cederschiöld University

Details and patient eligibility

About

This intervention study aims to evaluate a psychosocial family based intervention in clinical practice, the Family Talk Intervention (FTI), for families with dependent children affected by life-threatening/life-limiting illness, when a parent is ill.

The study has an effectiveness implementation hybrid design where both the effects of FTI and the implementation process in clinical practice are examined.

Full description

When a family with dependent children is affected by severe illness this affects the entire family. Still, there is little research evaluating support to such families. This intervention study aims to evaluate a psychosocial family based intervention in clinical practice, the Family Talk Intervention (FTI), for families with dependent children affected by life-threatening/life-limiting illness, when a parent is ill.

The study has an effectiveness implementation hybrid design where both the effects of FTI and the implementation process in clinical practice are examined. FTI will be carried out as a cluster randomized trial at 12 clinics in specialized palliative homecare (6 units=intervention, 6 units=control).

All social workers at these clinics will receive education and training in FTI in 2021. From 2022, FTI will be offered to families cared for at these care contexts.

FTI is manual-based and consists of 6 meetings with the families (together and individually) and is led by the FTI-educated social workers. The aim of FTI are to support the family in talking about illness-related subjects (e.g. prognosis, stress), support parenting, and support the family in identifying their strengths and how to best use them.

FTI will be evaluated through surveys and interviews with families before FTI/baseline and after completed intervention (3 and 6 months after baseline). Further, social workers will be invited to compete questionnaires and take part in focus groups about their experiences of FTI.

The research group has conducted pilot-studies on FTI in these contexts with positive results. The present study allows us to take a further step in the evaluation of FTI- evaluate FTI under real conditions.

Enrollment: 400 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Families affected by a life-threatening or life-limiting illness and have dependent children, ill or health aged 0-19 years and
• Enrolled in specialized palliative home care
• At least two family members have accepted to participate

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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400 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will be offered to participate in the Family Talk Intervention

Treatment:

Other: Family Talk Intervention

Standard support

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will receive standard support