Standards for the Psychosocial Care of Children With Cancer and Their Families: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Pediatric oncology psychosocial professionals collaborated with an interdisciplinary group of experts and stakeholders and developed evidence-based standards for pediatric psychosocial care. Given the breadth of research evidence and traditions of clinical care, 15 standards were derived. Each standard is based on a systematic review of relevant literature and used the AGREE II process to evaluate the quality of the evidence. This article describes the methods used to develop the standards and introduces the 15 articles included in this special issue. Established standards help ensure that all children with cancer and their families receive essential psychosocial care.