They fail to offer emotional support. Some extended families were described as avoiding contact and involvement with the child in the family, avoiding any conversation about the child or situation, or simply denying there was anything wrong. When parents are faced with this lack of support from extended family members, they are often devastated. She talks critically about him to others. She makes comments about him such as poor pathetic thing.
Parents describe insensitive physicians as condescending.
The physicians focus on the negatives offering little hope or support to the family. Individual family expectations may be one explanation. We expect family members to be there for us regardless of what happens. Likewise, physicians are taught to cure illness and disease. When doctors cannot cure, it's as though they violate a contract they have with society.