A new program for Pacific paediatric teams aims to help children in palliative care live their best lives.
A joint venture between Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland's School of Nursing and Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa, Centre for Global and Pacific Health, will see Pacific clinicians take part in a multi-phase Paediatric Palliative Care programme. It will start with a two-day workshop at the University's Grafton campus on August 13 and 14.
Led by Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa director, Associate Professor Sir Collin Tukuitonga, and Paediatric Palliative Care Nurse Specialist Dr Gemma Aburn, the program will support development of Paediatric Palliative Care across the Pacific region.
Paediatric leaders have been invited from each of the Aotearoa New Zealand supported Pacific countries; some 20 participants will attend from Fiji, Kiribati, Sāmoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
"Quality palliative and end of life care is essential for children and their families. It is important to support them and their care givers at this difficult time," Sir Collin said.
Dr Aburn said children who were very sick faced uncertainty every day of the week, along with their families supporting them. She stressed that every child with a serious illness should have good access to paediatric palliative care, and the program was a step in the right direction.
"It optimises quality of life, comfort, supports them to reach their full potential for however long that might be," she said.
"They deserved to be helped, to have the community walk alongside them. The programme is looking at how to support health professionals that walk alongside them."
The program organisers noted that providing support for terminally ill children meant taking steps such as evaluating access to essential medicines; advocating the World Health Organisation essential medicines to be available in Pacific nations.
"The learning will have benefits for children. How can we make dying better or living better. The biggest part is about living," Dr Aburn said.
The paediatric palliative care nurse specialist added that many children from the Pacific who received care in Aotearoa/New Zealand often benefited from family and community wrap-around support when they returned to their home country.
"We send a lot of children back to the Pacific, some remain in contact, you really learn what the differences are, whānau provide a more wrap-around support from a spiritual, whānau perspective. How do we take that and learn from that in New Zealand in terms of knowledge exchange?" Dr Aburn said.
The program will focus on supporting knowledge and skill development, prepare clinicians to lead development of Paediatric Palliative Care in their home countries; engage in conversation about how to work together, to mentor and support development of Paediatric Palliative Care.
The teaching faculty will include Dr Aburn, and colleagues Dr Ross Drake and Dr Anthony Herbert (Queensland Children's Hospital), Dr Stephen Laughton and Dr Mandy de Silva (Starship Child Health) Sina Kami (Founder & Director of WOWS Kids Fiji) and retired paediatric oncologist who has led development of Paediatric Oncology services in the Pacific for many years, Dr Jane Skeen.
