For families

As the parent of a seriously ill child, you face many challenges. There's often a lot of uncertainty. Yet, you have to make decisions about your child's care and treatment. How do you envision your child's future? Do your child's healthcare providers know what you value for your child and why? Your child's doctor or nurse may invite you for a consultation to talk about your child and the future. Together, you can discover which care and treatment is right for your child and family. You can also request a consultation yourself. On this page, you'll find materials to help you prepare for such a consultation.

For healthcare professionals

As a caregiver for a child with a serious medical condition, you want to provide the best possible care for the child and family in a way that suits them. To achieve this, it's important to explore the child and family's perspective and support them in discovering their own preferences and goals for future care and treatment. What is important to this child and family? You also want to prepare them for the future. What options are available to the child? What should the focus of care and treatment be? What do this child and family need, even as the end of life approaches? By discussing the future with the child and parents, you can tailor care together to the values, preferences, and goals of the child and family.

Proactive care planning for children and young people

If you have a serious illness or condition, you want to receive the care and treatment that's right for you and beneficial. Those around you need to know what's important to you so they can offer support. It's helpful for your parents to know this, but it's also important for your doctor or nurse to know.

To discover what's important to you, sometimes it's necessary to look ahead to the future. What matters to you when you're doing well? What matters to you when you're not doing so well?

Your doctor or nurse may invite you for a consultation to talk about you, your illness, and the future. You can also request such a consultation yourself.

Tools
fa-tools

Tools

Methodology

Consortia speak out: what steps have been taken?

Updates vanuit consortium 1 (UMC Utrecht) en consortium 4 (Radboudumc).


Co-IMPACT consists of consortia led by the University Medical Centers Utrecht, Groningen University Medical Center, and Radboud University Medical Center Amalia Children's Hospital. They collaborate with professionals from primary, secondary, and tertiary care, the Pediatric Palliative Care Knowledge Center, and various parent organizations, chaired by the Child & Hospital Foundation. Together, they will continue to develop and implement proactive care planning over the next four years.

The four consortia are involved in, among other things:

  • Making IMPACT more applicable for specific (chronic) conditions and in different phases of pediatric (palliative) care.
  • To take a first step in expanding pediatric palliative care to chronically complex child care and to explore opportunities for continuing education for healthcare providers to strengthen the quality of IMPACT in pediatric palliative care practice.
  • Encouraging collaboration between primary, secondary, and tertiary care providers, so that everyone within the network surrounding the child and family acts in accordance with the agreements made during proactive care planning discussions.
  • The ultimate goal: achieving optimal care that meets the needs, values, goals, and preferences of the child, parents, and family. For now and for the future.

Update from consortium 1

UMC Utrecht (Consortium 1) is working on updating its IMPACT materials. Over the past few months, the researchers have extensively and in various formats spoken with children, parents, and caregivers about the desired content and format of materials for proactive care planning. Project leader Jurianne Fahner: "We are currently working on a visual aid and discussion guide that can be used widely. We are also preparing the training for caregivers, which will begin in September 2024. We are almost at capacity. We appreciate all the input from the field and look forward to continuing our collaboration!"

OA3A6766 Pictured: the researchers and PhD candidates from consortiums 1 and 2.

Update from consortium 4

Radboud University Medical Center (consortium 4) is investigating how collaboration and communication between caregivers involved with children and families can be improved in the area of proactive care planning. This research consists of three phases:

  1. Mapping the current situation.
  2. Develop and implement improvements.
  3. Evaluate the new working method to see whether the objectives have been achieved or whether adjustments are necessary.

"We are currently in phase 1, in which we are investigating the care network surrounding a child and their family. We are specifically focusing on the care providers involved and how they share information about proactive care planning conversations. Preparations have been completed, and the first interviews have taken place," says project leader Inge Ahout.

The group also conducts file reviews on recently deceased children. "We examine the extent to which proactive care planning discussions are documented in the medical records and whether the outcomes of these discussions are communicated within the care network. We also investigate how well the parents' wishes and goals are communicated within the care network."

The goal of both studies is to gain insight into current practices: what works well and what could be improved? The results will form the basis for follow-up research, which will better integrate proactive care planning into childcare.

OA3A6665
In the picture: the researchers and PhD candidate from consortium 4.


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Jurrianne Fahner en Marijke Kars