Examining the Current Status of the Psychosocial Assessment of Living Kidney Donor Candidates in Canada: A Systematic Literature Review and Survey of Living Donor Programs

Over the past decade, the number of Canadians volunteering to donate a kidney has been steadily increasing. To protect this group of healthy volunteers, it is important that every donor candidate receive a psychosocial assessment before proceeding with donation. The assessment is used to ensure the donor is well-suited to donate, and to identify any potentially problematic areas where psychosocial assistance may be beneficial. Despite its importance, there are no standardized guidelines for the psychosocial assessment of living kidney donors in Canada. As a result, the assessment is conducted differently across living donor programs, and, as of 2006, some programs did not have a mandatory assessment. We have created a team of transplant researchers, social workers and psychologists who are motivated to work towards improving and standardizing the psychosocial assessment. We will administer a survey to living donor programs across Canada to examine how the assessment is currently being conducted, and simultaneously conduct a systematic review of the international literature on the psychosocial assessment. This work will provide the foundation for the development of standardized guidelines, bringing Canada a step closer to ensuring that all Canadian kidney donors receive the same optimal standard of care delivered in a reproducible and consistent manner.