The challenge of caring for adolescents and young adults

摘要

Providing care for adolescents and young adults facing the end of life has unique demands. While the outcomes for certain childhood and adolescent cancers have improved, some young people still succumb to their disease and need appropriate palliative care. Meetings with palliative care colleagues recently provided the opportunity to reflect on the unique nature of imminent death in young people with advanced cancer, and how as professionals my colleagues worked in a way that would provide the most appropriate emotional and social, as well as symptom-focused, support. The discussion gradually came round to what makes dealing with the death of a younger person so unique.