The incidence of chronic physical and mental illnesses in children and adolescents has risen significantly in recent years. These include asthma, ADHD, epilepsy, autism and depression. In addition to complex medical care for children with these illnesses, this also requires support for the families affected. The researchers at PedSupport are therefore focusing their work on patients who make long-term use of various health and social services and are restricted in their everyday activities.

The project participants want to develop a toolbox to improve the development and effectiveness of eHealth services to support families of chronically ill children during the first year after diagnosis. The existing eHealth services identified as part of the project work are to be examined in terms of their ability to meet the actual needs and requirements of the families concerned. This will allow recommendations to be developed for the future optimization of these services.

The project is designed as a care science study under everyday conditions with a multi-method approach. This includes a longitudinal, repeated survey of a cohort of parents of chronically ill children, the detailed recording of parents' subjective experiences over time and qualitative interviews with parents and care providers in the first year after diagnosis. In addition, there will be an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing eHealth services and a survey of the insured persons of the participating health insurance companies on these existing services. Based on this, the project team will formulate requirements for needs-oriented and empirically proven forms, content and optimal timing for eHealth-based support services. The team will also develop recommendations for the successful implementation of these services. The project will be funded for three years with a total of around 2.1 million euros.

If successful, the catalog of requirements and recommendations will be used to improve existing eHealth-based support services or to drive forward new needs-based developments in a targeted manner. The aim is to reduce the burden on those affected and their families, improve their quality of life and promote social support for families.