The world is shocked and horrified by the ongoing impact of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, that began on Thursday 24 February 2022. This terrible war continues to have a negative impact on all Ukrainians. Every sector and system in the country has been affected, including the healthcare infrastructure and the vulnerable who depend on it. This includes children with palliative care needs and their families.
On Friday 27 May 2022, a committed group of children’s palliative care practitioners came together in a well-attended Focus Group meeting organised by PallCHASE with generous support from the Fondazione Maruzza as part of the 5th Maruzza International Paediatric Palliative Care Congress, to highlight the palliative care needs of children and their clinicians in Ukraine and to commit to helping them.
Four pediatric palliative care clinicians working in Ukraine and a paediatrician from St Jude who has been working with SAFERUkraine provided insight into the difficulties they were experiencing Those present at the meeting were moved and appalled by the accounts of their Ukrainian colleagues and were determined to show their support and commitment to those in need of palliative care services in Ukraine, children from Ukraine being cared for by palliative care organisations in other countries, as well as to those who deliver it. The first draft was read and circulated for editing and later compiled to a final version.
The Rome Declaration is a Call to Action both in the present and into the future. It calls for long-term commitment beyond words.
Members of the global children’s palliative care (CPC) community, including the Fondazione Maruzza ICPCN, EAPC, PallCHASE, St Jude’s Global, and GWISH, commited to collaborate as organisations and individuals who together make up a rich resource of knowledge and skills to do what they can to:
- Relieve the suffering of children in Ukraine needing palliative care and their families
- Promote CPC as a child’s right
- Collaborate with colleagues inside Ukraine to support existing services
- Advocate for policy makers and donors to allocate resources to CPC during the crisis and when rebuilding services
- Advocate for adequate palliative medicine supplies, including opioids
- Promote spiritual and psycho-social support for children, their families and our colleagues who care for them
- Assess the effectiveness of our interventions to improve the quality of support
The final version of The Rome Declaration of Palliative Care for Children in Ukraine can be found on the PallCHASE website and the full article here. Should you wish to show your support for our colleagues in Ukraine, please sign this declaration, either as an individual, or as a representative of your institution or organization.
Article based on the article posted on the PallCHASE website
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