GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE IN ROME SUPPORTED BY THE FONDAZIONE MARUZZA LEFEBVRE

USA - English

• Italia - Italiano

More than 20 million children worldwide could benefit from palliative care, but access to such services remains an issue.¹

ROME, May 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Eternal City is ready to host the leading international pediatric palliative care specialists from May 25 to 29. Two years after the pandemic, the Maruzza Lefebvre Foundation is organizing the "5th International Maruzza Congress on Paediatric Palliative Care" (https://www.childrenpalliativecarecongress.org/congress-2022/), an international event that brings together health professionals from all over the world, engaged in assisting minors suffering from incurable diseases of high and medium care complexity. The three-day conference is dedicated to scientific research, training and exchange of knowledge with a distinct purpose: to provide doctors and nurses the most recent updates, in order for them to deliver the best possible care to children and families living with a diagnosis of incurability.

This year, exactly ten years after its very first edition, the Congress will focus on the theme of listening. "Listen, really listen" is in fact the connecting theme of all those attending and giving presentations. How to listen to a child who cannot express their needs? How to manage the expectations and desires of families? What challenges does the clinical team face when healing is not an achievable goal? Listening is the answer; a listening that sometimes requires methods that transcend verbal communication.

With the intent to highlight the many ways communication can develop, the opening ceremony will showcase the White Hands Choir and the Quadracoro, and feature a concert that can be enjoyed by all, even individuals with disabilities who cannot speak or hear.

The International Conference is fundamental towards the dissemination of innovative approaches and novel technologies, presenting new international standards of care and proposing specific practices for humanitarian crises, such as the ongoing situation in Ukraine.

Franca Benini, Chair of the Conference and Director of Paediatric Palliative Care, Pain Service Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padua, Italy: "These last two years have been really difficult and exhausting for everyone. They were especially so for our little patients, their families and all health professionals who have assisted them throughout their history of illness. The "5th International Maruzza Congress on Pediatric Palliative Care" represents the will, the opportunity and the need to start over, to finally pick up where we left off, and in person, as debate and involvement between experts in pediatric palliative care is fundamental, in order to share knowledge, projects, ideas together with critical issues and problems. Our mission is a common one, and we believe that the most correct and up-to-date indications can be drawn from discussion and a common effort to respond in the best possible way to the numerous needs that an incurable disease in a child entails: needs that have an important impact on a clinical level but also on a psychological, social, spiritual and ethical one. "

PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE. There are 22 million infants, children and adolescents worldwide who are affected by incurable diseases and would benefit from pediatric palliative care. The World Health Organization defines pediatric palliative care as " the active total care of the child's body, mind and spirit, which also involves giving support to the family." Its purpose is to improve the quality of life of young patients and their families, and in the vast majority of cases the home is the best place to provide such care, but for cultural, affective, educational and organizational reasons, pediatric patients rarely benefit from such an approach.

MARUZZA LEFEBVRE D'OVIDIO FOUNDATION. Since 1999 the Foundation has been involved in the field of pain therapy and pediatric palliative care for minors suffering from incurable diseases. Today the Maruzza Foundation is a leading national and international organization in the field of Palliative Care. For further information www.fondazionemaruzza.org

1. International Standards for Pediatric Palliative Care: From IMPaCCT to GO-PPaCS  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392421007119 Benini et al - Volume 63, Issue 5, May 2022, Pages e529-e543   

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SOURCE Fondazione Maruzza