Improving palliative care for children
A start has been made on implementing a programme for the development of palliative care for children in 20 regions of Russia
Moscow 22 January 2015
The charitable fund Detsky Palliativ has started implementing a regional programme for upgrading the qualifications of NGO and municipal staff working with incurably ill children. This is a two-year programme which includes a series of seminars, round tables and advice sessions designed to both broaden and deepen the expertise of specialists from these regions.
The charity’s programme ‘Development of the Capabilities of NGOs and Municipal Health Organisations in the Field of Children’s Palliative Care in the Russian Federation’ has received a 9.2 million rouble subsidy from the ministry of economic development. Organisations in the regions involved have already indicated readiness to take part.
Karina Vartanova, the director of the charity, said: ‘We want to adapt our activities so as to supply what the regions actually need and to maximise the effectiveness of our specialist help. For that reason we have planned visits to familiarise ourselves with different areas. We are meeting with NGOs and health organisations, discussing the state of play in a region, and identifying where the need for training and dedicated support is most acute.
The regions are those of: Moscow, Bryansk, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Novosibirsk, Orlov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, Kaluga, Khanty-Mansi, Yugra, Rostov, Tomsk, Altai, Kaliningrad, Bashkortostan, Komi, Chuvash, and Kemerovo. The series of familiarisation visits is likely to be completed around the end of February and the list of regions might be amended as a result of the visits.
Ms Vartanova said, ‘So far as I can tell, going by the visits to Perm and Ekaterinburg, the main points are the acute shortage of trained specialists, and the lack of professional literature and worked-out procedures. The wheel has continually to be reinvented with even those who understand the importance of developing children’s palliative services not always knowing what to do or how to do it. The general consensus is that it is important to teach practice as well as theory; ‘how’ is as important as ‘what’.
Author: Yulia Vyatkina
