The aim to build a multifunctional children's palliative care center
The Children’s Palliative Care Society plans to build a multifunctional care center that will provide assistance to families raising terminally ill children with very difficult functional conditions and limited survival.
The planned services of the care center are:
- day center services;
- a moment of respite for families;
- functional rehabilitation;
- care for the last days of a child’s life in an environment as close as possible to home conditions;
- support groups for parents, brothers and sisters, t. see after the death of a child during the period of mourning;
- education center for specialists in various fields.
The need of the center
There are approximately 600-700 children in Latvia with incurable diseases and / or limited survival. Their number is growing every year.
Most children suffer from neurological, genetic and oncological diseases, and most patients need help for many years.
If a child cannot be cured, it does not mean that he cannot be helped!
A promise to small patients and their families
Allowing children to be children – games and activities are key to creating family memories of time spent in a multifunctional care center.
Cozy atmosphere – customers and employees feel at home, not in a hospital or nursing home.
Contact with nature – an environment that helps to relax and enjoy.
Asylum – Many families are suffering and need to be able to recover.
Community – an opportunity to meet people with similar experiences and keep in touch.
Care and support – facilities and team that build trust and allow families to truly recover.
Together to the end – support for the child to leave, dignified rituals of mourning, a place of remembrance.
Mission and vision
The mission of the project is to provide medical, social, psychological and mental care for children with incurable diseases, providing support to families throughout the child’s illness, death and grief.
Vision:
By creating a multifunctional care center, we hope to build dream bridges for a happy, high-quality and full life, despite the limitations of health, including:
- Significantly improve the quality of life of terminally ill children and their families,
- To provide an opportunity to receive palliative care for all children in Latvia,
- Ensure a sufficient number of palliative care professionals for children,
- Become a leader in palliative care training in the region.
Nanny for important moments of life
It is a great blessing to have the opportunity to meet people who, with their nature, wisdom and simplicity, reveal how to perceive, live and, above all, truly live their lives! Under the auspices of the Palliative Care Society, there are many families from whom we can understand life more deeply and appreciate what is really important, often forgotten in the daily race.
These families take care of children on a daily basis, whose radical treatment options have been exhausted and where the whole family, relatives and friends live with the child’s incurable disease. See the story of John’s family here.
Just as no two children are alike, each family has its own needs. Most of these families lack reliable support – a nanny who would be present at everyday events inside or outside the place of residence. Families raising an terminally ill child cannot always afford to pay for babysitting, so peer support is needed. This need is also confirmed by a survey conducted by the Children’s Palliative Care Association and the parents’ own initiative “We do not want to burn out!”.
You can support this project there
The situations in which the nanny’s support is needed are different, but they all shape the daily lives of these families:
- Take time for yourself or other family members to recover, strengthen.
- In the postoperative period, when mom and dad’s powers are exhausted and it is so necessary to entrust the offspring in safe hands – for an hour, day or night, to get a moment to relax and regain their strength.
- Be present to parents at other children’s life’s big events – weddings, graduations, birthdays, to give embrace and good wishes for the future.
- To be a support at the end of a child’s life, where a babysitter would be present at home and support the family at this difficult and at the same time very important stage of life.As Lāsma’s mother said, “I would advise others not to identify themselves with problems, because it is life for children.”
Your support will help strengthen these families and the children will definitely feel it!
Providing palliative care for children at home
Every child deserves to live in a family all the time, not just in the days when they are healthy, happy and carefree. Every child, even the sick, deserves to receive their mother’s kiss in the evenings and listen to Dad’s lullabies instead of the sounds of the hospital equipment.
The support of relatives and the opportunity to be at home for more than 200 terminally ill children is a source of strength and strength during a serious illness. However, these children often need not only the love of close people, but also medical equipment, special nutrition, the support of a competent team of professionals – a sense of security that in the most difficult days there will be something that helps.
