**3. Research: Psychosocial research is essential to build up different clinical approaches**

The primary psychosocial concern in child cancer care is to help the children and their families cope with the diagnosis of cancer and its aftermath. The children and their families, the great majority of whom are struggling with the new diagnosis but who do not show signs of falling apart, need our support. How can we most effectively help mentally healthy children whose lives have been suddenly turned upside down with the diagnosis of a lifethreatening illness? We can't expect the families to wait for intervention until we can fully determine which intervention works most effectively and validly. We must try to help the child and family who have an immediate here-and-now need for support, while pursuing scientifically valid controlled research designed to sort out effective from ineffective interventions. The optimal clinical service is the application of the best available evidencebased findings applied locally in cultural context. Well done research is costly and difficult to accomplish in centers with limited resources. However, the health care team even a center with limited resources can listen carefully to the children and their families to find out how they are functioning and how they are responding to the service that is offered. It is recommended that parents be asked formally how well they view the center's functioning and this satisfaction within a simple nonrandomized like study. Modifying one's approach based on a reflection on the families' level of satisfaction with the service can help make the service better. Even in countries with limited resources, it is possible and critically essential to give full attention to the psychosocial needs of the children and their families.
