The family talk intervention prevent the feeling of loneliness - a long term follow up after a parents life-threatening illness

Background: The psychosocial needs of families in which a parent is affected by life-threatening illness and has dependent children are extensive. However, few family-based interventions have been scientifically evaluated and even fewer have been evaluated long term. Therefore, the specific objectives of this study were to describe the parents' perceptions of the timing and length of FTI in relation to the illness trajectory, to explore what activities learnt by the FTI still were practiced in the long-term and what content of FTI was perceived as most valuable to cope in the long-term.

Methods: This qualitative study involved a follow-up with nine parents (ill parents, n = 3, coparents, n = 6) 4 to 5 years after participating in FTI, where one parent was cared for in specialised palliative homecare. FTI is a psychosocial family-based intervention that consists of 6-11 manual-based meetings with the families led by an educated interventionist. FTI focuses on facilitating family communication about illness-related subjects, supporting parenting, and making the children's needs visible. The data collection consisted of interviews and was analysed according to the phenomenographic method, focused on variations in perceptions.

Results: The parents perceived FTI as a way to alleviate feelings of loneliness, and some families were still using the obtained communication tools at the time of the interview. They also perceived that FTI contributed to the children being more open about their own feelings and thoughts. However, the parents wanted extended support after FTI ended based on their individual needs, for example, during and after bereavement, deteriorated health or occasional challenges faced by children in crisis. The parents perceived the peer support gained in conjunction with FTI as important social and emotional support both during and after the intervention. The interventionists were perceived as professional persons who promoted open and honest communication during FTI.

Conclusion: FTI is found to promote family communication both in a short- and long-term perspectives according to parents. They also found FTI useful in reducing their feelings of loneliness. Support over a longer period of time is desired and extra FTI meetings may strengthen the family as a whole in parallel with additional support for parents and children during the illness trajectory and in bereavement. They received support in dealing with strong and difficult emotions and learned conversational techniques that they still used at the time of the interview, indicating that the lessons learnt was integrated and valuable many years after the last FTI meeting.