BACKGROUND: Parents of babies diagnosed with life limiting conditions in the perinatal period face numerous challenges. Considerations include the remainder of the pregnancy, delivery of the baby and decisions around care in the neonatal period. AIM:…
Background: The global incidence of cancer is increasing, and the Middle East is projected to be one of the most impacted regions. Increasing number of people would benefit from palliative care (PC), but access is poor, especially for children.…
BACKGROUND: End-of-life care for children with life-shortening conditions is provided in a range of settings including hospital, hospice and home. What home-based, end-of-life care should entail or what best practice might look like is not widely…
BACKGROUND: End-of-life care for children with life-shortening conditions is provided in a range of settings including hospital, hospice and home. What home-based, end-of-life care should entail or what best practice might look like is not widely…
BACKGROUND: Worldwide, around 21 million children would benefit from palliative care and over 7 million babies and children die each year. Whilst provision of paediatric palliative care is advancing, there major gaps between what should be done, and…
BACKGROUND: Home care of children with life-limiting diseases is extremely challenging for parents/family caregivers and their social environment. In order to gain new insights into the perspective of family caregivers, we employed digital Network…
BACKGROUND: Advance care planning for young people is relatively new in the UK. There is a lack of understanding about the engagement of young people in their own planning process, optimal timing of discussions and the facilitators and barriers to…
This study was carried out in eight palliative care services in four Canadian cities. A revised version of The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL) is compared to a single-item scale measuring overall quality of life (SIS), and the…
Videotelephony (real-time audio-visual communication) has been used successfully in adult palliative home care. This paper describes two attempts to complete an RCT (both of which were abandoned following difficulties with family recruitment),…
This work was undertaken by the Science Committee of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland (APM) as a demonstration project in developing clinical guidelines relevant to palliative care from a pragmatic approach to…
Background: To date, time-use studies in palliative care have been limited to exploration of time commitments of caregivers. Understanding time-use in people with a life-limiting illness might provide insight into disease progression, symptom…
BACKGROUND: An estimated 21 million children worldwide would benefit from palliative care input and over 7 million die each year. For parents of these children this is an intensely emotional and painful time through which they will need support.…
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy techniques are becoming more widely available and will be considered increasingly for patients with head and neck or upper gastrointestinal malignancies, and for neurological dysphagia, as occurs in motor neurone…
The importance of allowing bereaved siblings the opportunity to be involved and mourn the loss of a sibling family member has gained increasing recognition. Child family members may need support in the same way that parents might need support to cope…
This multicentre, observational study examined the efficacy of the therapeutic transdermal fentanyl system (TTS-fentanyl) in children requiring opioids for pain in life-threatening disease. Forty-one children receiving oral morphine (median dose 60…
BACKGROUND: Paediatric life-limiting and life-threatening conditions (life-limiting conditions) place significant strain on children, families and health systems. Given high service use among this population, it is essential that care addresses their…
This paper examines recent research in palliative care in the light of the guiding principles set out by the World Health Organization. It outlines the gaps in the literature and suggests priorities for future research. Areas of unmet need are…
Spirituality and spiritual care are gaining increasing attention but their potential contribution to palliative care remains unclear. The aim of this study was to synthesize qualitative literature on spirituality and spiritual care at the end of life…
Background: Researchers report difficulties in conducting research with children and young people with life-limiting conditions or life-threatening illnesses and their families. Recruitment is challenged by barriers including ethical, logistical and…
BACKGROUND: Provision of paediatric palliative care is complex and optimally covers meeting the individual needs of a heterogenous population of children and their parent caregivers throughout a life-limiting illness. It is unclear whether existing…
Background: Spirituality refers to the dynamic dimension of human life that relates to the way that persons experience meaning, purpose, and transcendence. The complex task of parenting a child with a life-limiting condition may raise existential…
Introduction: In Italy there are approximately 12000 children affected by life-limiting illnesses, which require palliative care services. The national reality, however, confirms the lack of a proper palliative care services network to ensure relief…
BACKGROUND: The importance of caring for children with complex and serious conditions means that paediatric palliative care must continue during pandemics. The recent pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides a natural experiment to…
Research aim: The main aim was to describe the needs of parents caring for a terminally ill child during the course of the illness, the time of dying, and after the death of the child. Secondary aim was to identify the risk factors occurring during…
This is the first report on the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL), a questionnaire relevant to all phases of the disease trajectory for people with a life-threatening illness. This questionnaire differs from most others in three ways: the…
BACKGROUND: Digital health interventions are becoming increasingly important and may be particularly relevant for paediatric palliative care. In line with the aims of palliative care, digital health interventions should aim to maintain, if not…
Background/aims: Children and young people (CYP) with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions (LLLTC) represent a group with complex care needs that are met by multiple services and thus may be subject to particular vulnerabilities.
BACKGROUND: The number of children with a life-limiting condition is increasing. The mothers of these children commonly provide extensive care at home for their child and are at a higher risk of poor health than other mothers. The impact of this is…
Background: Dignity Therapy (DT) is a validated psycho-therapeutic intervention designed to influence a sense of meaning and purpose for individuals and their families. DT is well received by patients and family members, with research identifying…
Death or disability is much more common in multiple births than single children, especially in the perinatal period. Parents face particular problems in that their loss may be underestimated; their grieving may be impeded by the confusion between the…
Background: While work with adolescent in Paediatric Palliative Care we need to notice their development (psycossocial and cultural). The adolescence it is characterized by social questions, where the adolescent need to belong to some group and their…
Background: Giving care to a patient at the end of life can be a challenging and confronting experience. The responsibilities of care giving may include executing complex physical and mental tasks, financial planning, patient care decision making,…
Background: The question ‘would you be surprised if this patient died in the next 12-months’ is widely used for identifying adult patients in the last year of life. However, this has not yet been studied in children.
BACKGROUND: Bisphosphonates are the treatment of choice for hypercalcaemia of malignancy (HCM) but there is no consensus regarding which drug or dose should be given. We designed a systematic review to investigate the efficacy of bisphosphonates in…
