PAT Background
From the beginning, the PAT has been well received and has been recognized as meeting clinical needs. The PAT was first described in the literature in 2001 and has undergone revisions and refinements since then. The PAT is used in both research and clinical care around the world.
PAT was developed in pediatric cancer and is currently used in approximately 29% of pediatric cancer programs in the United States (Scialla et al., 2018). PAT is validated in English (Kazak et al., 2018) and Spanish (Kazak et al.,2018) for use in the United States and other English speaking countries (e.g., Barrera et al., 2014; McCarthy et al., 2009).
While the PAT has been extensively studied and validated for use with pediatric cancer patients and their caregivers, we have created a “general” version of the PAT that can be used with other pediatric illness populations. The general PAT was modified taking into consideration multiple illness / injury groups.
The PAT is brief and most families complete the PAT in 10 minutes or less. However, screening is just the first step in delivering psychosocial care. In response to the results of the PAT, it’s important to conduct a more thorough evaluation to determine how best to respond.
Within the US, the PAT has been used clinically and in research in more than 120 healthcare centers.
PAT scoring and intervention data have been collected on over 16,000 families in the US.