Children’s Palliative Care in Latvia and its relation to improvement of Quality of Life of the families with incurably ill children

Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia

Abstract

In Latvia’s health care sector children’s palliative care (PC) is comparatively new branch. There are relatively few scientific researches performed in PC by now. This can be explained by demographical and academic factors as well as by specific ethical problems. The Palliative Care Service at Children’s University Hospital is the only service of the kind in Latvia providing both – in-patient and home PC service for patients residing in Riga and Riga district. The service is not available to every child in all regions of Latvia. Hence, the main objective for the future would be establishing a high-quality, assessable children’s PC service system throughout the country. The specialists of the children’s PC team have launched an initial nation-wide research on quality of life of families with incurably ill children. The research on quality of life (QOL) in families with incurably ill children is essential in order to promote political decision-making in the government and in the private sector regarding health-care including development and improvement of children’s PC in Latvia. Results of the research on QOL of the families with incurably ill children will set base for improvement and perfection of service provided by PC team.