The child visitor in adult intensive care: Psychological experience of the visit and support measures

Introduction. - While ICUs encourage visits from patients' loved ones, visits from children and adolescents have remained a rather sensitive issue. In an attempt to protect children from a potentially traumatic environment, certain services refuse or restrict their visits. Objective. - In this context, the question arises as to whether the visit in intensive care constitutes a psychological risk for the child and adolescents. Based on the literature, this article discusses the experience of the visit on the child, the research methodology implemented with child visitors, and finally the existing support systems. Results. - The analyzed studies do not consider the psychological disorders associated with ICU visits. Moreover, there are many studies on this field and the methodologies have yet to be developed. Support measures exist but are at the initiative of the intensive care teams. Conclusion. - There is now an urgent need to build on the studies focused on this field in order to propose a genuine policy with regard to the reception and support of children visiting ICU patients. (C) 2020 Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.