Malawi has 3000 children on palliative care
Malawi has only 3000 children receiving palliative care in the country’s major public and Christian Health Association Hospitals (CHAM).
Children Palliative Care Project Coordinator Jean Tauzie told Nyasa Times that the number of children receiving the palliative care services care is at a lower side due to lack of knowledge about the services among many parents.
“We still feel that there is lack of knowledge on the services among parents especially in the rural communities where many children with life threatening illnesses are kept at home,” she said.
She explained that the Palliative Care Association has come up with a number of strategies such as advocacy for the Children Palliative Care (CPC) in order to reach communities who have children with threatening illnesses.
Tauzie added that the Association has also developed a training manual to be used as a resource tool when conducting Children’s Palliative Care trainings called “Children’s Palliative Care Training Manual for Health Care Workers.”.
After realising that there is lack of confidence, knowledge and skills among health workers to competently communicate with children and their families about diagnosis and prognosis, the association in collaboration with the Ministry of Health came up with such training manual book, she said.
She said the target group for health care workers shall be health training colleges, doctors, clinical officers, nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists, dental and medical assistants, anaesthetics and nutritionists among others.
However Palliative care in the country has been provided without a guiding tool despite progress made in central hospitals to provide CPC.
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We need a collaborative effort in assisting children who have life limiting and life threatening illnesses. We should not pretend as if we don’t have this problem. Our young ones with these chronic and life limiting /threatening illnesses are suffering in silence.Let us join hands and advocate for children palliative care services so that we can improve the quality of lives for these children. Together we can!
How I wish everybody could be passionate about palliative patients especially children. I feel for their families and I wish they could be given priority just as we do with safemotherhood and HIV/AIDS. To those of us who can, let’s reach out and touch we will never go wrong these souls needs us.