Introduction and categorisation of children’s palliative care needs and prevalence
Authors: Randall, D., Neilson, S. and Downing, J.
Journal: Childrens Palliative Nursing Care
Pages: 1-11
DOI: 10.4324/9781003384861-1
Abstract:The development of the book from conception to publication is set out in this introductory chapter. In doing so, children’s palliative care is described, and the terms and methodologies to determine the size and nature of children’s palliative care are defined. It is noted that the book considers palliative care for all stages of childhood from pre-birth to 18 years, as defined by the World Health Organization. The complexity of multi-disciplinary palliative care is considered in broad terms as starting with medical diagnosis. The introduction of improvements in estimating the number of children affected has led to an appreciation of increasing need globally. In addition, differences between the extensive need, but poorly resourced palliative care services in low-and middle-income countries and high-income countries in the Global North with much more developed services and professional resourcing, have become evident. Finally, the structure of the book is reviewed, including mapping the chapters to the Education Standard Framework developed by the UK and Ireland Children’s Palliative Care Education and Training Action Group (the CPCET Action Group). Parts I-III of the book are based on the four levels of the Framework: Public, Universal, Core and Specialist.
Source: Scopus