Psychological and social needs of mothers of children in need of palliative care

Background. Pediatric palliative care is provided comprehensively to the whole family having its main purpose to improve the quality of life of the patient and his family. Identifying the actual needs of the family and the child is necessary, as this can help improving the quality of care provided. Current problems, difficulties, and needs should be analyzed taking into account the family's place of residence, standard of living, and other socio-demographic characteristics. Objectives. The study is aimed to identify the current needs of mothers of children in need of pediatric palliative care living in the Leningrad region. Study Participants. The study involved 102 women (mean age 39.7 ± 6.365) raising children aged 1 to 18 years in need of palliative care (total number of 104 children, mean age 10.10 ± 4.698). Currently, families receive pediatric palliative care and live in the Leningrad region. The child's disease was detected during infancy. Methods. The study was conducted using the author's socio-demographic questionnaire designed to identify the current needs of mothers of children in need of palliative care. Spearman's rank correlation criterion was used to perform correlation analysis. Results. Based on the obtained socio-demographic data, the analysis allowed to identify three groups of urgent needs of mothers of children in need of palliative care: 1) material; 2) social; 3) physical and psychological. Conclusions. The results made it possible to identify social and psychological targets, such as providing “social respite”, support from charitable organizations, psychological support to reduce the intensity of negative experiences, and building social contacts.