Children's palliative care team Frankfurt 2012
Unimaginable reality: accompanying dying children, their parents and siblings
The FFBT supports the establishment of a children's palliative care team for southern Hesse with financial donations. The Palliativteam Frankfurt gGmbH, headed by Dr. Ingmar Hornke, had already begun preparing this team in 2011. In February 2012, the first two-person core team was able to start work. The first vehicles for the team are available, two emergency kits have been procured and the infrastructure for telecommunications and IT has been set up.
The initial aim of the new children's palliative care team is to staff 2.5 medical posts and 4 nursing posts in order to be able to care for up to 40 children per year. Even with this, however, the need is by no means covered: Palliativteam Frankfurt gGmbH estimates that around 120 children are affected each year in the region it serves. However, filling further positions that take account of the actual number of cases requires the conclusion of suitable contracts with the health insurance companies.
In the meantime, a social worker and psycho-oncologist has also joined the team. Two more such positions are planned. In the long term, these costs will also have to be financed by donations and grants, as the health insurance companies do not cover the costs of these services. Psychosocial support is even more important in children's palliative care than in the care of adults; siblings and parents are often only able to bear the unimaginable burden of a dying child with such support.
The FFBT will continue to support the children's palliative care team with generous donations in order to advance the development of this project as quickly as possible. After all, many children still have to die in hospital between apparatus and tubes - instead of in familiar surroundings with loving 24-hour care that alleviates their pain and suffering as much as possible.