What is the FTI? Information for families and clinicians

The FTI consists of 6–11 manual-based meetings, divided by 1-2 weeks between the meetings, in different constellations of family members. The psychosocial intervention is led by trained interventionists (often social workers). The FTI starts off with parents forming their thoughts around the illness and how it affects their family. The parents set goals for their family’s participation in the FTI (e.g. getting help to talk to the children about the forthcoming death or bring attention to neglected healthy siblings). Through the FTI, the family is helped to express things they find difficult to talk to each other about. The entire family, the persons they identify as their family, are gathered into a family meeting with focus on breaking the silence, with every voice being heard. Through dialogue, situations within the family that they consider problematic are illustrated. Experiences are shared between family members and the needs and experiences of the children are in focus.

In the present research program, the FTI training is led by medical social worker Anna Patzauer Personne, who has extensive experience in working with FTI within different clinical care contexts.