ASHIC Palliative Care Unit: A Shelter for Helpless Children
In Bangladesh, hospitals are over crowded. The number of palliative care units in the hospitals oncology departments are too few. Specific training in palliative care is non-existent, chemotherapy and medicines are costly and not always available. Finally, financial constraints for patients' families, especially for costly long term treatment, play an important role.
- Number of children affected by cancer each year - 7000 and above
- Percentage of patients diagnosed - about 15-20%
- Number of children with access to Paediatric Oncology Units - about 700
- Percentage of patients that drop out after admission - about 30-50%
- Overall survival rate of the admitted patients - about 10-15%
Main Objectives of the Project
- Provide palliative care to terminally ill children with cancer referred from hospitals in PCU for a brief period before transporting them home
- Train parents on pain and symptom management. During the brief period the cancer affected children are cared for at the PCU
- Provide counselling and psychological support for parents
- Create a retinue of doctors, nurses and social workers trained in palliative care
- Supply limited medicine for pain and symptom management to patients in their homes. Monitor and advise patients at home through regular phone calls
- Build nation-wide awareness about the need and options for providing palliative care
- Visit patients at their homes to address emergency situations
- Develop palliative care facilities near other important hospitals all over the country
- Develop public-private partnerships to address the problem
Benefits of the Project
- CHILDREN are more at peace with improved pain management
- FAMILIES get mentally prepared to accept the loss
- FAMILIES and children feel secure having kind people around them
- FINANCIAL support helps the families care for their child with cancer
Location
Dhaka
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