Depression among children and adolescents in palliative care. Reflections between psychologists, child psychiatrists and mobile team of palliative care

If the topic of depression in pediatric palliative care is often evoked in the clinical setting, few studies have been published. We have, in our multidisciplinary team, write a protocol of care for depression in children in palliative care and we need to focus in that complex questioning: how to define and diagnose depression among children in pediatric palliative care and how to manage it. The articulation of the different professionals in a real interdisciplinary is essential so that each point of view can be expressed, heard and discussed in a respectful and open environment. We need to be able to anticipate, identify and manage the clinical depression in a multidisciplinary manner, resisting to the temptation to automatically medicalized the psychic suffering of the child, while calling upon the child psychiatrist, when and if necessary. It is crucial, while offering support to the child and the family, to be able to tolerate the adaptive depression and to resist to the utopian idea of a "beautiful death". (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.