A 3-Day Workshop on Palliative Care for Children: Transforming Childhood Cancer Care in Uzbekistan

Authors: Megan Doherty, Julie Ling, Rustambek Norbaev, Kamilla Turakhodjaeva,Ilyos Karimov.

The World Health Organization recognizes the importance of palliative care as an essential component of the care of children with cancer. With the support of WHO European Regional Office, a 3-day train the trainer workshop was conducted for physicians caring from children with cancer in Tashkent. The workshop brought together key physician leaders from across Uzbekistan, to train and support them to provide palliative care for children.

The workshop included interactive teaching, role play demonstrations and discussion with participants working together to explore key components of children’s palliative care. Key faculty for the workshop included:

Dr Megan Doherty, Program Director of Pediatric Palliative Care at Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration
Julie Ling, WHO EURO
Dr Rustambek Norbaev, Palliative care specialist; Taskin Hospice (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
Kamilla Turakhodjaeva, Psychologist; Taskin Hospice (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
Ilyos Karimov, Social Worker, Taskin Hospice (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

The participants explored how palliative care could be integrated into their personal clinical practice, with practical discussions about how they could provide basic psychosocial support, particularly when access to psychologists and social workers was limited, which is often the case in rural and remote parts of Uzbekistan. Together participants discussed and reflected on barriers and myths to palliative care, including the myths that palliative care is only end of life care and that it can only be given by specialists.

Participants practiced explaining palliative care to colleagues and family members through role play and discussion. Exploring how they would help families to understand that palliative care could help children and their families, when facing the challenges of cancer.

A highlight of the workshop was a visit to Taskin Hospice, a pediatric hospice facility in Tashkent, where they were able to see first-hand how morphine and other controlled medicines could be administered. After seeing how palliative care was happening at Taskin Hospice, participants were eager to begin providing palliative care in their own clinical practice.

Key Topics which were included in this workshop included: