THE ROLE OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST IN PALLIATIVE CARE FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: An integrative literature review

Abstract

Pediatric palliative care (PPCs) seeks to promote quality of life in patients or families of children and adolescents with illnesses or conditions that threaten and/or limit life. CPPs are carried out by multidisciplinary teams and the psychologist is one of the professionals who can be part of them. However, the role of the psychologist in this context remains unsystematized in empirical studies and literature reviews. Thus, the objective of this article was to describe, through an integrative literature review, the state of the art of the psychologist's role in palliative care for children and teenagers. It was used the Prisma P protocol, in which 12 databases were accessed and 968 studies were extracted. Six articles were included at the end of screening the abstracts and reading the studies. The publications were analyzed by deductive-inductive thematic analysis, creating three categories: (1) concept of CPPs and end of life, (2) role of the psychologist in CPPs, and (3) understandings about the role of the psychologist in CPPs. The results indicate that the role of the psychologist in CPPs covers all moments of care: focusing on management of emotions, interpersonal relationships, communication, supporting family members after death, beyond the possibility of assisting other health professionals and doing training or supervision. It was observed that there is little integration of psychologists in PPC teams, and a small distinction in the scientific literature regarding the support provided by psychologists and other professionals.