When we think of palliative care, we imagine older people whose diseases have a cure. But, What happens to children and adolescents who need palliative care? Our hospitals and medical professionals are not so prepared to offer these special care to the little ones.
"Palliative medicine in children and adolescents" is a book fruit of the work of one hundred expert authors which establishes the basis for introducing this assistance into the health system.
To this end, specialists from Spain, the United Kingdom, Latin America and Africa have been counted ... and the topic of guiding principles of palliative units, symptom management, cancer, the end of life in Neonatology, has been discussed, attention to the family ...
Specialists remember that it is essential to have hospital beds intended exclusively for this purpose and that all medical and surgical specialties are taken into account, because none is exempt from having this type of child patients.
The minimum unit for this type of care would be that of a pediatrician and a nurse, but psychologists, physiotherapists and other specialties are also essential.
We must also bear in mind that the attention that children need is different from that of adults for the different cognitive capacity and emotional maturity of minors; you will also have to intervene in parents, siblings ...
According to data from the World Health Organization, 6% of patients who require these palliative therapies are children and its prediction of survival is more difficult than in adulthood. In addition, many children have long disease trajectories and deteriorate slowly, which requires prolonged, physical but also psychological attention.
The book "Palliative medicine in children and adolescents"
The book "Palliative medicine in children and adolescents" It aims to sensitize and train doctors and pediatricians of Primary and Specialized Care, in Spain and in the rest of the world (its translation into English and French is already thought), especially in Latin American and African countries where there is very little palliative culture.
The book is published by the University of the Basque Country, with the collaboration of Caixa and the Basque Research Foundation and the support of Palliative Without Borders (PSF), a Spanish non-governmental health organization, which has been working since 2009 to reduce the suffering of the sick at the end of their life and their families.
Collect and analyze the main causes why the children of the world suffer because of the disease and different typologies that require palliative care:
There is talk of children with cancer who relapse, it evolves poorly ... And children who expect a transplant that does not arrive.
The cases of cystic fibrosis are also treated, chronic disease from birth with prolonged survival thanks to effective palliative care.
Or progressively fatal pathologies, (metabolic and mitochondrial problems such as spinal muscular atrophy ...).
There are also static disorders that come from a serious neurological lesion (congenital anomalies, neurodegenerative disorders ...).
Definitely, the book "Palliative medicine in children and adolescents" shows us that palliative care in infants, children and adolescents is also necessary, and explores the necessary ways to be effective in Spain and in the world.
