Introduction to the problem of arranging medical and psychological support to pediatric cancer patients and their parents

Statement of the problem. The article provides an overview of theoretical and experimental studies related to the organization of medical and psychological support for pediatric cancer patients and their immediate environment - parents. There is a contradiction between the increased attention to the issue of providing medical and psychological assistance to cancer patients and the lack of a comprehensive model of care focused on relying on the patient's personality, taking into account the uniqueness of assistance at different stages of treatment and, depending on the child's age, providing psychological support to the immediate environment of the childhood cancer patient. The purpose of the article is to analyze the current state of the problem on providing systematic medical and psychological assistance to pediatric cancer patients and their families, to identify various organizations of psychological support for this category of addressees of psychological assistance. The research methodology is based on the ideas of the system approach, psychosomatic approach, cultural and historical development of the human psyche, statements of the subject-activity approach. Research results. The analysis of the targets of medical and psychological care for pediatric cancer patients and their parents, presented in modern Russian and foreign sources, is presented. Problems in the implementation of medical and psychological assistance to children with cancer and their families are generalized. Conclusion. As a result of the analysis of the problems, the prospects for the study of medical and psychological care for pediatric cancer patients and their parents are outlined: the study of the personality characteristics of cancer patients and their parents, the study of the features of the formation of adaptive types of attitudes towards the disease in families, the development and testing of a model of medical and psychological care for this category of persons.