Rob Verkerk & Jo Gamble explore the immense difficulties faced by parents & practitioners wanting to provide integrative care to children.

Beyond those directly affected, few people are aware of the immense challenges and obstacles that exist to providing science-based holistic therapies to children with cancer. The legal framework surrounding the scenario of a child with cancer mean that once a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition is made, parents are no longer the arbiters of the best course of treatment for their child. Furthermore, the limited freedoms that do exist for a consenting adult to choose their own treatments do not apply in the case of a minor, creating a dangerous working environment that most practitioners have chosen to stay well clear of. The effect of this understandable reticence is that desperate parents experience an immense lack of support for their children, and resources that have been scientifically shown to help are frustratingly beyond their reach.