Children’s palliative care is in the stage of early development in the Czech republic, and at present there are only three children’s palliative care providers.
The Hospice of the Good Shepherd has been providing care to adults since 2004 and, under the leadership of Jiri Krejci, have now started a discussion about providing palliative care to children.
The first step was to organise a conference in palliative care for children, which was held in Prague on 13.-14 November 2014. After this, the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) was approached to assist with training of practitioners.
In December 2014, two trainers/consultants, Maraliza de Haan from The Netherlands and Dr. Natasha Savva from Russia, travelled to Prague and conducted a three day introduction course on children’s palliative care to a group of health professionals from the Czech Republic. The course, sponsored by the Czech Republic Ministry of Health, included crucial topics in Children’s Palliative Care including:
- Communication
- Assessment of Children
- Spiritual care
- Pain management
- Family and Psychosocial Care
- Programme Development
The course was appreciated by all who attended and is seen as a further stepping stone in the development of children’s palliative care in the Czech Republic. After the course, the facilitators received much positive feedback, including this letter from Lucie Junková, an occupational therapist who completed the course.
I would like to thank you once more for truly amazing time with you during 3-days course. It was really nice to meet you and I am looking forward to next communication with both of you. Did you enjoy your trip via Christmas Prague?
There is the sentence: PALLIATIVE CARE IS NOT ABOUT ADDING DAYS TO SOMEONE’S LIFE BUT ABOUT ADDING LIFE TO SOMEONES DAYS.
Also I want to mention that I am so supprised and impressed by ICPCN! I’ve registered already and the warm welcome and next communication – wow 🙂 Why I am so happy about it is also because a week ago I thought it will be like ‘mission impossible’ to get any information about childrens palliative care and occupational therapy … but now I know that its much better than I could ever have expected!
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