Quiz 6: Psychosocial care and support

Choose the one, most correct answer to each question or statement.

1. Psychosocial care and support within children’s palliative care is mainly concerned about:
   • Providing housing and transport for families
   • The psychological, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the patient and their family members
   • Ensuring the child attends school so they don’t fail at the end of the year
   • Ensuring families talk to one another and don’t have disagreements over the child’s treatment
2. Supporting the psychological needs of young infants means:
   • Giving them regular baths and making sure their nappies are changed regularly
   • Rocking them to sleep so they feel safe
   • Providing them with comforting physical contact from a trusted adult
   • Making sure doctors and nurses don’t hurt them
3. What issues can result from ‘magical thinking’ for a very sick child aged 3 to 6 years?
   • Children may believe that they have magic powers and can participate in dangerous behaviours and still be safe
   • Children may believe that it was something bad they said, thought or did that has caused their illness
   • Children may believe that they are able to make all their wishes come true through the power of magic
   • Children may believe that their illness is caused by someone casting a magic spell on them
4. Which psychosocial characteristic below best describes a school-going child aged 6 to 12 years?
   • They start comparing themselves with their peers and either feel proud or inferior
   • They need to be close to their parents or carers and fear separation
   • They have a desire to explore their world and insist on doing things for themselves
   • They think deeply about the meaning of life and who they are
5. What are the main psychosocial tasks of an adolescent?
   • To feel secure
   • To learn to play
   • To gain self confidence
   • To develop a sense of self
6. What is the meaning of ‘total pain’?
   • It is pain that includes a person’s physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and practical struggles
   • It is suffering that affects all parts of the person’s body
   • It is suffering of the person’s mind and body
   • It is pain that can only be relieved with a combination of medications
7. What social problems may children with a life-limiting illness experience?
   • They are afraid of being with their friends in case they pick up parasites such as intestinal worms
   • They may refuse to spend time with friends because they are ashamed or embarrassed about the effects of an illness
   • They will be too sick to miss spending time their friends
   • They prefer to be alone
8. Children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness:
   • Should not spend time playing as it will exhaust them
   • Will show no interest in playing or in games or toys because they are dying
   • Should not play as it may expose them to infections from other children and from the toys
   • Need to play because it is a therapeutic way for them to process anxiety and trauma related to their illness
9. How can you facilitate play for children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness?
   • Giving children whatever toys are available to play with
   • Providing toys that won’t make a mess or need cleaning
   • Offering a selection of regularly cleaned toys that are suited to their developmental age and their interests
   • Providing them with the same toys every day until they learn how to play with them correctly
10. Why is it important to help children continue their education when they are sick?
    • Children need to learn in order to get well again
    • Children need the discipline that school and work provides
    • Attending school provides a sense of purpose and normality and keeps children connected with their friends
    • It is compulsory for all children to attend school
11. How should you involve the school in the psychosocial care of the child with a life-limiting diagnosis?
    • The school should be informed that the child will no longer need to attend school or receive an education as it is likely they will not survive
    • The school should be kept up to date with information and encouraged to cooperate with the family and care team to ensure the child is able to continue their education
    • The school must be kept informed of the child’s education progress so that they can report to the department of education
    • Children with a life-limiting or life-threatening diagnosis will not benefit from further education or attending school
12. What is a community?
    • A social group of people who share a common environment with similar beliefs, preferences and needs
    • All the generations of members within an extended family
    • The people who know about and are willing to provide some aspect of support for the sick child and the affected family
    • Everyone who lives within a named village, town or city
13. What aspects of the social support should be assessed?
    • Whether there are people in the community willing to provide financial support for the family
    • How close the family live to a clinic or hospital and if they can pay for a doctor to visit the child at home
    • Whether the child’s house is suitable, what transport problems exist, the family’s finances and what community support services may be willing to assist in providing appropriate care
    • The family’s standing in the community and whether the neighbours would be willing to care for the child when the parents need a break
14. Why is it important for us to understand and assess relationships within the family unit?
    • We need to find out if the child has siblings or is an only child
    • As all family members are emotionally connected individuals, none can be fully understood on their own
    • If the whole family is not assessed, siblings will feel they are being ignored and neglected
    • Assessing the family will help to distract them from their concerns and fears about the child’s illness
15. What is a genogram?
    • A treatment for severe depression
    • A clinical test to assess whether a young child is grieving
    • A toy that children can use to express their feelings
    • A graphic illustration that shows how members of a family are related to each other
16. How should we support a family unit through their journey of caring for a sick child?
    • Help them identify new coping techniques, because techniques that they might have used previously are not appropriate any more
    • Give them medicine to help them cope with their stress and depression
    • Act as a mediator and assist the family to understand each other’s feelings and concerns and assist them in finding their own way forward
    • Advising them not to think too much about the child’s illness and possible death as this will only increase their anxiety and sadness
17. To support a family effectively during the child’s illness it is important that you:
    • Take control of all the difficult decisions to assist the family at this difficult time
    • Give the family the opportunity to discuss all decisions and promote their participation through choice and control
    • Give the family an opportunity to discuss all decisions but ensure that they obey the treating team’s plan
    • Leave the family to do what they need to do and only get involved when they ask
18. Siblings of children with a serious illness:
    • Should understand that the needs of the sick child are more important than the needs of the siblings at this time
    • Should be asked to take over chores at home so their parents can focus on the sick child
    • Should be expected to be on their best behaviour during this difficult time
    • May experience feelings of guilt for things they have said to their sick sibling in the past and become anxious and withdrawn
19. How can parents show support to siblings?
    • Buying them gifts and sweets so they don’t feel jealous
    • Spending time alone with the siblings and keeping in contact with them when they are away at the hospital
    • Telling them all their worries and concerns about the sick child
    • Expecting them to keep doing their best at school and helping around the home
20. How can we allow the patient and family self-determination?
    • Recognise their rights and give them the freedom to make their own decisions
    • Tell them what it is we expect them to do
    • Persuade them to do what we believe to be in the best interests of the child and the family
    • Explain that we will no longer support them if they make choices we don’t believe to be in their best interest