Psychosocial and Palliative Care

Abstract

This chapter will address the psychosocial aspects of intensive care, specifically for immunocompromised patients and their caregivers. It will highlight the emotional needs of patients and families in the PICU and consider how psychological interventions and pediatric palliative care (PPC) aim to bolster adaptive adjustment and coping and maximize well-being. It is important to recognize the inherent diversity of the population of immunocompromised patients receiving critical care. There is a wide range in terms of their medical diagnoses and the duration and intensity of medical treatments experienced and, most fundamentally, in terms of the individual differences that exist across patients and their family systems. As such, the experience of admission to an intensive care unit for this population should be considered within the larger context of a patient and family’s global experience of treatment.