Improvements needed in care services for dying children

27/09/2005 - 11:58:50
A report by the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Department of Health has recommended major improvements in the care provided to children with life-threatening illnesses.

The report says services for these children are unequal across the country, while the State is also not providing enough support for home-based care.

It recommends that more trained staff be hired to help parents provide home-based care and that a special worker be allocated to each family with a dying child to co-ordinate the provision of such care.

The report also calls for greater research into the experiences of children with life-threatening illnesses.