What is family-centred care?

Family-centred care is a ubiquitous term in paediatric health facilities. It means that an admitted child can never be treated as a single individual patient, that the family is the unit of care, as the parents and family are central to the child's wellbeing, especially during traumatic experiences. There is no rigorous evidence that family-centred care works, but qualitative research is drawing out some grave concerns with how it is implemented. Part of the problem is that there are many descriptions of family-centred care, but few definitions, and some of its component parts may be in place in some health services without the whole model being in place. This causes confusion amongst health professionals and parents and children, and makes it impossible to test in a randomised controlled trial. This paper discusses these problems and suggests that a new model, child-centred care, may be a better model of care for children.