Communicating the diagnosis of a hematological neoplastic disease to patients' minor children: a multicenter prospective study.

Background: When a hematological malignancy is diagnosed, the whole family carries the burden of the disease; parents often try to protect minor children from suffering by avoiding communication about their disease. Since 2009, patients with minors at the Adult Hematology Division at San Gerardo Hospital (Monza) can take part in the "Emanuela Project": children can visit parents and talk with psychologists and hematologists, who explain the disease through simple metaphors.

Materials And Methods: The EMY STUDY aimed to evaluate the impact of illness-related communication on children's behavior, comparing Monza's experience with other Hematology Units, where the communication is delegated to parents or psychological support.

[The box of pain. Representation of the hospital in children's drawings].

Hospitalized children's drawings show that the hospital is perceived from little patients as a huge and often terrific reality, in spite of the efforts made by nurses and doctor in order to soften the experience of hospedalization. There's a need of a change in hospital's structures in order to make them closer to children' word of experience and to give him/her more security and tranquilisation in everyday hospital life.