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Children of Seriously Ill Parents

At the Knowledge Center for Palliative Care for Children, we have been committed to sick children and their families for years. The so-called KIEZO target group has recently been added: Children of Seriously Ill Parents. Palliative care currently pays little attention to the children of a seriously ill parent.


Children of Seriously Ill Parents

Guidance of children

Everyone can imagine that a period of illness and possible death of a parent has an enormous impact on the life of a child. Possible physical, social, emotional and cognitive consequences can be considered. Good support and guidance for these children is not only valuable for today's children, but is also of great significance for the adult people they will become in the near future. Our director Meggi Schuiling-Otten is part of the KIEZO Working Group , which is committed to ensuring that children as relatives are also taken into account during the guidance of the palliative patient/parent.

Flyer Impulse Mental Care

The Impulse Mental Care Home subsidy offers financial support to families when they want to make use of a chaplain or grief and loss counselor. It is important that this subsidy scheme can be used not only for family members of seriously ill children, but also for the children of (a) sick parent(s). The coordinators of the Networks Integral Child Care ( NIK ) can help children who are going to lose a parent or have lost a parent with contact with a chaplain or grief and loss counselor.

Position paper

The position paper of the KIEZO Working Group is the first step towards acknowledging the gap in our health care: forgetting the KIEZO target group. This describes the guidance and support needs of the KIEZO target group in more detail and makes some recommendations to reduce the gap, for example the importance of a systematic view of families and specific training. The position paper “I just matter, don't I?” calls on governments, policy makers and healthcare providers to pay attention to the children of seriously ill parents.