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Parents’ experience in the Ronald McDonald Houses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

M. Cosquer  and
C. Jousselme
M. Cosquer*
Affiliation:
Fondation Vallée Hospital, Research Department, Gentilly, France
C. Jousselme
Affiliation:
Fondation Vallée Hospital, Research Department, Gentilly, France
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Child hospitalization is a difficult event in the life for the whole family, probably worst for families coming from far away, specially for accommodation. Ronald McDonald Houses (RMH) created in the immediate proximity of pediatric departments of hospitals, allows hospitalized children to benefit from the presence of his family nearby. The hypothesis that the family is stronger when it is grouped together (the “family-centered-care” concept) remains difficult to demonstrate (Cochrane, 2012). In France, there is no study describing the interest of such places, and families experiences.

Objectives

Our objectives are to describe the experience of parents in French RMH.

Methods

A cross-sectional study conducted between February and April 2016, invited 50 families to participate in the 9 French RMH, by feeling an anonymous questionnaire (socio-demographic characteristics, items related to hospitalization, anxiety and depression scale -HADS, conditions of stay at the house). Descriptive statistics presented mothers and fathers experience.

Results

Parents of 333 hospitalized child participated : 320 mothers, 246 fathers. 44.1% of child were aged less than one year. Services more represented were : intensive care unit, oncology and neonatal. Parents were socially rather disadvantaged, living mainly in couples, with an estimated mean home-hospital time of 2 hours. They reported financial problems (>40%), sleep deprivation (>1.5 hours), and anxiety-depressive disorders: anxiety (>50%) and depression (>20%). Satisfaction staying in the house was extremely high (>95%).

Conclusions

We observe an undeniable added value of the RMH in the care. Nevertheless, the high level of psychological suffering shows the importance of offering help at the psycho-social level.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

accomodationchild hospitalizationfamily centered carefamily experience
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S865
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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