The suffering of children

World Hospice Day was celebrated on 6 October. In Austria it was an occasion to reflect on ways of reinforcing hospice services and raise the awareness of public opinion on assistance to the terminally ill, children in particular: an issue that is too often passed over in silence.LEADER IN EUROPE. Austria is the leader in Europe for hospice services and provision of palliative treatments. To promote and boost the involvement of volunteers in the country’s hospices, the federation Hospiz Österreich has signed an agreement with the Austrian Federation of Savings Banks for a two-year cooperation, which provides for a funding of 60,000 Euros per year. The accord was recently presented in Vienna by Sister HILDEGARD TEUSCHL , who heads the hospice federation. Structures will also be created for the supervision of some 3000 staff and the system of compensation will be reformed ex novo . On the basis of other accords at the federal level, savings banks will make available facilities for training and for meetings of hospice volunteers. Training is an important aspect; its main aim is to safeguard the level and quality of assistance. “At the present time, volunteers have to take a 70-hour training course before being able to assist in care for the terminally ill”, explained Teuschl. She also gave some significant data for the activity of the hospice movement in Austria in 2006: 7000 patients assisted by each of the 120 mobile hospice teams for a total of 260,000. Hospice treatment is also provided by six fixed hospices, two day-hospitals, 22 centres for palliative care, 26 mobile teams for palliative treatment and 25 counselling centres for palliative treatment. HOSPICES FOR CHILDREN . Children and young people also have a need for the care services offered by the hospice movement: this aspect of hospice activity was underlined by Caritas of the diocese of Linz during a conference devoted to this often ignored problem. In 2006, 17% of those assisted by hospices were patients below the age of 40. And over the last three years a total of ten children up to the age of 16 with chronic genetic pathologies, often correlated with physical and mental handicaps, and three children with incurable tumours, have been assisted by hospices in Austria. “Grave and incurable diseases and death from natural causes in childhood or at a tender age are still taboo in our society”, observed ULRIKE PRIBIL , directress of the mobile hospice service in Linz. “The same goes for the situation of children who have lost their loved ones”, she added. The fact that the death of children in taboo is “problematic also because chronically ill young people often need greater support or other forms of assistance than do older persons. Families, too, are often exposed to supplementary emotional burdens”, said Pribil. That’s why the work of assistance provided by hospices and centres of palliative treatment is often more demanding when it’s a case of helping young patients and often requires constant care of the patient and his/her family. CHILDREN AND DEATH. Providing greater support to children who are trying to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones: that’s the aim of Caritas of the archdiocese of Vienna with its new initiative: “Kindertrauer” (children in mourning), a new agency focused on trying to alleviate the suffering of children in mourning. It will organize special events and conferences, publish information and provide assistance to grieving families and in schools. Information and mediation for offers of assistance will be provided free of charge. “Children often feel abandoned and misunderstood because death and mourning are still taboo” and are passed over in silence by adults, observed MICHAEL LANDAU , director of Caritas in the Austrian capital. “Children experience the death of important members of their family such as grandparents, parents, brothers/sisters or even friends in a very different way than adults”, he added. The great demand for childcare emerged from close collaboration with the mobile structure of the Caritas hospice, which assisted over 1300 patients and their families in 2006. “We wish to accompany grieving children, while at the same time supporting adults, so that children may confront their own emotions and fears in a creative way. The aim is to prevent them from self-isolation, depression, anxiety and psychological disorders that threaten their further development”, explained INES PFUNDNER , head of Kindertrauer.