IMPACT-EU: Making Quality Psychosocial Care and Support Accessible for Every Child and Adolescent
Every child and adolescent with cancer deserves not only excellent medical treatment, but also top notch emotional support, psychosocial care, and a care pathway that covers the entire cancer trajectory in both hospital and community settings.
IMPACT-EU is working to make high-quality psychosocial care and support a standard part of paediatric cancer care across Europe independently from the age of the patients and where they live.
Turning Evidence into Policy
Improving care requires more than good intentions. It requires clear standards, strong partnerships, and policies that put children, adolescents, and families at the centre.
Through its policy and advocacy work, IMPACT-EU brings together healthcare professionals, patient and parent organisations, policymakers, and civil society to turn evidence into practical change. The project promotes the recognition and sustained funding of psychosocial care as an essential, well-connected part of cancer treatment for children, adolescents, and their families and psychosocial support as a complementary service in addition to provided care inside and outside the hospital.
An Event in Ireland: Addressing Inequalities
As part of this work, IMPACT-EU will host an event at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland on November 18, 2026, and focuses on one urgent question: how can we ensure that no child or adolescent is left behind?
The policy event will facilitate keynote speeches and a panel discussion to address inequalities in access to psychosocial care and support, with particular attention to:
- Age: Children and adolescents have different needs at different stages of their cancer trajectory. Psychosocial care and support must be age-appropriate, responsive, and available throughout treatment and beyond.
- Geography: Families in rural, remote, or underserved areas often face additional barriers to accessing specialised psychosocial services. Where a child lives should never determine whether they have access to quality care and support.
Continuity of care: Psychosocial care and support must follow the child from hospital-based treatment to community-based services, clinics, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and back. Strong connections and coordination between these settings are essential for a seamless and compassionate care pathway.
Building Bridges Between Hospital and Community
Psychosocial care and support does not begin and end within hospital walls. Children and families also need accessible, age-appropriate quality psychosocial care and support in their communities through local clinics, NGOs, and peer-support networks.
The policy event will highlight the importance of collaboration between hospitals and community-based service providers. By strengthening these links, IMPACT-EU aims to help create a continuous system of care: one where children, adolescents and their families are supported based on their needs during treatment, through transitions, and in everyday life after hospital discharge by all relevant stakeholders hand-in-hand.
A Call to Act Together
This event is an opportunity to listen, learn, and act. It will bring together voices from across the care pathway to discuss identified gaps, share solutions and recommendations, and build momentum for policy change.
Together, we can move closer to a Europe where every child and adolescent with cancer and their families has access to high-quality psychosocial care and support, regardless of age, location, or circumstance.
Join us virtually in Dublin and be part of the change!
More events are coming! Stay tuned and save the dates!