Being parents of child with cancer : experiences and adaptation process during the Covid-19 health crisis – PACCO

The health crisis and lockdown have led to a number of upheavals, including in the care of children and adolescents with cancer and their families. Psychosocial support, driven by public policies (Cancer Plans) - "school in hospital", physicals, play and creative activities, presence of both parents at the child's bedside - has largely been suspended. How does this change the social experience of cancer? How do parents cope and adapt to this change in care? What are their needs?
Based on hypotheses emerging from an exploratory qualitative study (19 interviews conducted in June and July 2020), this research will use a larger sample (30 additional interviews) to analyse the parents' experience of this health crisis and its consequences. The aim will be to describe the paradoxical process imposed by the health crisis and the reorganisation of services: on the one hand, the gap between children, parents and their peers has been reduced by the generalisation of lockdown - a situation that is both singular and common - to the whole population, and on the other hand, the maintenance of the « outside world » references within the walls of the hospital in order to maintain the most 'normal' life possible has been broken. We will study this paradox and its consequences, based on the social transactions carried out by the parents according to their socio-cultural determinants and gender identities.