Every year, approximately 25,000 children in Europe are diagnosed with cancer. Pediatric palliative care supports living with a life-threatening illness and focuses on the quality of life for these children and their families. This means focusing on alleviating physical symptoms, as well as emotional and spiritual support and guidance in making choices about treatment and dying. Doctors and nurses in palliative care can be involved in the treatment of a child with cancer from the very beginning.
HOPE4Kids
In many European hospitals, care for children with cancer primarily focuses on treating the disease and alleviating symptoms. Specialized palliative care is often overlooked. The European project HOPE4Kids (Holistic Oncological Palliative Care 4 Europe's Kids) aims to change this, ensuring more children and families receive the support they need. The goal is to exchange knowledge, develop European guidelines, pilot best practices and practical tools for healthcare providers and families, and develop education and training programs.
Collaboration in Europe
HOPE4Kids connects healthcare providers, researchers, policymakers, and parent organizations from 23 countries. Twenty research institutions, 21 hospitals, and three parent organizations are involved. The project with a €12 million grant from the European Union has been co-initiated by Máxima International, part of the Princess Máxima Center. Máxima International was founded to foster cooperation between pediatric oncologists around the globe. Improving palliative care seemingly fits the center’s mission: to cure every child with cancer, with optimal quality of life.
Prof. Dr. Leontien Kremer, research group leader at the Máxima Center, coordinates the HOPE4Kids project together with Dr. Erna Michiels, a pediatric oncologist at the Máxima Center specializing in palliative care. Kremer is looking forward to the collaboration with the project partners. ‘By working together across borders, we can learn from each other and grow. In this way, we jointly build a solid foundation for palliative care across Europe, in which the child and the family are central.’
Towards a European Individual Care Plan
The four-year project is ultimately intended to lead to concrete improvements in the availability and quality of pediatric palliative care throughout Europe. Michiels explains how the partners intend to achieve this. ‘We will be developing evidence-based guidelines and mapping palliative pediatric care in Europe. Education and training are also being developed for healthcare providers, educators, caregivers and parents.’
Kremer adds: ‘Consider, for example, digital support for home care, more accessible information for parents, and an individual care plan that can be used throughout Europe. We will also explore how we can learn from each other and improve policy.’
‘Above all, we hope that HOPE4Kids will be an important step towards better pediatric palliative care, in the Netherlands and beyond. So that every child with cancer can count on care that truly helps them, at a time when it is needed most,’ Michiels concludes.
The kick-off meeting for the official launch of the project took place in Amsterdam in October and brought together around 140 participants.
HOPE4Kids is a Joint Action, funded by the European Union’s EU4Health Programme and is part of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The funding was awarded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).
HOPE4Kids Joint Action is Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor HADEA can be held responsible for them.