Pediatria pre prax 1/2018

More life less pain. How to help parents when their child is dying? (Recommendations for physicians)

In paediatric practice, we encounter situations when the child illness is incurable and the prognosis is fatal. Care about children with life-limiting/threatening diseases is extremely challenging for the family and healthcare professionals. In Slovakia 491 children died during the year 2016 (70 % from acute conditions and injuries, 30 % from life-limiting/life-threatening diseases). We have 5-6 bereaved people for every loss. 2450 people were affected by the loss of a child in Slovakia during the year 2016. According to studies, up to 20 %
of bereaved people can have a complicated process of grief (6). Complicated grief does not improve without professional help. Grief therapy and counselling as part of palliative care is therefore paramount.

Keywords: grief, complicated grief, Centrum of Grief Therapy PLAMIENOK, n. o.