Pediatric cancer care extends beyond medical treatments, encompassing the psychological, social, and emotional wellbeing of patients and families. These elements are critical to foster a high quality of life for children and their families during their most challenging times. While each patient, survivor and family have their own unique experience and journey, all can benefit from evidence-based care designed to reduce distress, enhance resilience and build psychological safety.

The Standards for Psychosocial Care for Children with Cancer and their Families is a transformative guideline laid the groundwork to establish an evidence-based process to ensure that all patients and families receive a standard level of care with pediatric cancer. However, many years later, there still isn’t enough data or the knowledge to which of the pediatric cancer programs in Canada are delivering care consistent with the Standards.

The Psychosocial Standards of Care study aims to assess:

• the status of which of the pediatric cancer programs in Canada are currently delivering care consistent with the Psychosocial Standards
• map the availability of psychosocial resources that adhere to the guidelines

The ultimate goal of this project is to ensure that all pediatric cancer patients and their families, regardless of geographic location, have equitable access to high-quality, evidence-based psychosocial care, creating a supportive foundation for their journey through and beyond cancer treatment.