When a family with dependent children is affected by severe illness this affects the entire family. Still, there is little research evaluating support to such families. This intervention study aims to evaluate a psychosocial family based intervention in clinical practice, the Family Talk Intervention (FTI), for families with dependent children affected by life-threatening/life-limiting illness, when a parent is ill.~The study has an effectiveness implementation hybrid design where both the effects of FTI and the implementation process in clinical practice are examined. FTI will be carried out as a cluster randomized trial at 12 clinics in specialized palliative homecare (6 units=intervention, 6 units=control).~All social workers at these clinics will receive education and training in FTI in 2021. From 2022, FTI will be offered to families cared for at these care contexts.~FTI is manual-based and consists of 6 meetings with the families (together and individually) and is led by the FTI-educated social workers. The aim of FTI are to support the family in talking about illness-related subjects (e.g. prognosis, stress), support parenting, and support the family in identifying their strengths and how to best use them.~FTI will be evaluated through surveys and interviews with families before FTI/baseline and after completed intervention (3 and 6 months after baseline). Further, social workers will be invited to compete questionnaires and take part in focus groups about their experiences of FTI.~The research group has conducted pilot-studies on FTI in these contexts with positive results. The present study allows us to take a further step in the evaluation of FTI- evaluate FTI under real conditions.
This intervention study aims to evaluate a psychosocial family based intervention in clinical practice, the Family Talk Intervention (FTI), for families with dependent children affected by life-threatening/life-limiting illness, when a parent is ill.~The study has an effectiveness implementation hybrid design where both the effects of FTI and the implementation process in clinical practice are examined.