Identifying Family Members in Need of Support While Caregiving and After Loss

NCT02455505 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 15-095
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 52
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

This screening tool will be used to identify significant relations of patients with advanced medical illness or serious hospitalization and family individuals who lost their loved one and who could use professional support in the future. We are interested in enrolling family members or close friends of patients with advanced medical illness as well as family members or close friends who have lost a loved one. Some screening tools to identify family members who might need support do exist, but the investigators are hoping to develop one that is brief and easier for healthcare providers to use. The information learned in this study will help us refine the screening tool. Family member input will be essential in the development of this screening tool.

Conditions

Advanced Cancer

Keywords

Cancer Care and Bereavement; Supportive Care; 15-095

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• to refine the bereavement risk screening tool and its items based on respondent feedback.

  we will obtain family member input on the pre- and post-loss versions of the screening tool; we will obtain input from a separate sample of family members on a revised version of the screening tool that incorporates feedback

  1 year

Study Arms (1)

Risk Screening tool & Cognitive Interview

Behavioral: background questionnaire; Behavioral: bereavement risk screening tool

Interventions

background questionnaire BEHAVIORAL

Risk Screening tool & Cognitive Interview

bereavement risk screening tool BEHAVIORAL

Risk Screening tool & Cognitive Interview

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants will be recruited from MSK and Calvary Hospital locations (The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan), which provides hospice and bereavement services to patients suffering from advanced cancer and their families.

You may qualify if:

• As per self-report, 21 years or older
• As per self-report, has a domestic partner or spouse, child (minor or adult), sibling (sister or brother), parent or close friend diagnosed with any advanced medical illness or who was recently (2 months) or is currently hospitalized for life-threatening injuries or conditions related to a traumatic incident (e.g., car accident, overdose, assault) OR
• As per self-report, experienced the recent (within 2 months to 3 years) death of a domestic partner or spouse, child (minor or adult), sibling, parent or close friend.
• Responds "yes" to the question "Can you understand spoken and written English?
• Agrees to be audio-taped during the cognitive interview \[Waves 1 and 2 only\] \* For Part 2 only: In the event that the patient dies prior to a consenting pre-loss family member completing the study questionnaires, the family member will be eligible for participation in the post-loss group after at least 2 months have passed after the loss

You may not qualify if:

• Significant psychiatric or cognitive disturbance sufficient, in the investigators' judgment, to preclude the completion of the assessment measures or informed consent (i.e., acute psychiatric or neurological symptoms which require individual treatment)
• Another family member (parent, domestic partner or spouse, sibling, or adult child) has been enrolled in the study

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: lead
• Calvary Hospital, Bronx, NY: collaborator
• The New School for Social Research: collaborator
• Weill Medical College of Cornell University: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

New York, New York, 10065, United States

Location

Calvary Hospital

The Bronx, New York, 10461, United States

Location

Related Links

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study Officials

• William Rosa, PhD, MBE, MS

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 22, 2015
• First Posted: May 28, 2015
• Study Start: May 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Estimated): May 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): May 1, 2027
• Last Updated: May 29, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Locations

US (2)