Remember the children

Palliative care staff must offer bereavement services to children facing the death of a grandparent or loved one otherwise they could experience serious issues in later life, an end-of-life expert said.

Palliative care staff must place a greater focus on providing emotional support to children following the death of a loved one because without it, they face a greater risk of experiencing problems in later life, according to an end-of-life care expert.

This is the belief of the international palliative care physician and Cardiff University Professor, Baroness Ilora Finlay, who spoke about the importance of incorporating quality bereavement services into best palliative care practice, at the Palliative Care Victoria (PCV) 8th Biennial State Conference in Melbourne last week.

According to Prof Finlay, children who do not  receive emotional support following the death of a loved one, like a grandparent, are at greater risk of problems later in life.

“Funding for child grievance services is a drop in the ocean particularly when we consider the impact on the child as an adult,” Prof Finlay said.

“If children are not supported during a time of grief there is a higher risk of problems including drug addiction and teenage pregnancy.

“If we invest in supporting these children through our health services, schools, wherever that support can best reach them, it is an investment in the future.

“For every 1 million school age children, 7000 will be bereaved of a parent or sibling, and 13,000 will have lost someone close to them.

“Memory of death lives on and alters our life chances.”

The international palliative care physician, Prof Finlay, is also an independent member of the UK’s House of Lords, is regularly on call at weekends to attend terminally ill patients.

She told the conference audience that a broader understanding of palliative care was essential.

“We are not a death service. People do better if they have access to palliative care early.

“People facing the close of their lives fear what lies ahead, often fearing things that just won’t happen. They need to feel confident that they will not be abandoned, but will be supported to live as fully as possible in whatever time is left as their horizons are changed by disease.”

More than 300 health care professionals and volunteers attended the two-day Victorian palliative care conference, Shaping the Future of Palliative Care.

Given the timing of the state conference – less than a few weeks out from the release of the Australian Senate’s report from its inquiry into palliative care – most of the conference’s presentations focused on the provision of palliative care services in the future.

Speakers discussed what palliative and end-of-life care should look like in 2030; what the inquiry will mean for the future roles of specialist palliative care services; and how might the sector evolve, innovate and adapt to a changing environment in the years ahead?

For more information, visit the Palliative Care Victoria website.

Tags: cardiff-university, ilora-finlay, palliation, palliative, palliative-care-victoria, victoria,

1 thought on “Remember the children

  1. I fully recommend funding for children experiencing the death of a loved one. My father passed away when I was 8 years old and in the era I grew up a child wasn’t supposed to cry nor show any emotions. This therefore has caused alot of pain, grief and life long degrees of pressure to do well, when the words “what would your father day” if something went wrong or a goal wasn’t acheived. The wider community and especially school techers need to understand what a child is experiencing through this period, there are many teachers, adults and children who have no conception of the feelings and loss a child feels.I have tried througout my adult life to assist and speak with children and teenagers the feelings they are experiencing to let them know this is normal and you will get through it. It all jsut takes time with the right support

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