Coping with the death of a child: pediatric palliative care from Primary Care

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) are actions aimed at children and adolescents who suffer from an incurable, progressive and disabling disease, and start at the time of diagnosis and are maintained throughout all the evolution of the disease.

These activities are conducted by a multidisciplinary team of professionals treating simultaneously the sick child and his/her family, in a comprehensive way, covering all their needs, physical and psychological, with a personal or community perspective. In its beginning, this attention has been hospital centered including home visits.

Primary care, such as the care of the child and his/her family in their bio-psycho-social environment, is emerging as an excellent collaborator within the multidisciplinary team, it collects the knowledge of the child and the family prior to the diagnosis of the disease, the monitoring, the knowledge of the school and social environment, and works with the siblings and family after the outcome.

We analyze the performance of primary care within the pediatric palliative care team, in coping with the process of terminal illness and death of a child, with considerations about attitudes, communication, the grief process and the accompaniment of the child and family in all phases of the disease, and after it.