CANKIDS INDIA

Pediatric palliative care is an active and total approach to care, embracing physical, emotional, social and spiritual elements. It focuses on enhancing quality of life and includes the management of distressing symptoms and provision of respite and care from diagnosis through treatment and, where necessary, into death and bereavement. 

At most hospitals in India even if Pediatric Cancer Units exist, with the large burden of patients and scarce resources, there is limited if no emphasis on symptom management, pain management or counseling support. The gap becomes even more acute when a child becomes terminally ill and there is no further cure.  

Sometimes there may be a Pain and Palliative Care Center (PPCP), but there could be the absence of team coordination between the Pediatric Cancer Unit and the PPCP, the emergency center or the hospice. A child’s transition back home, and even into death may thus be painful, traumatic and the end of the road for the family may be a lonely, bitter struggle.

The need for a Pediatric Palliative Care Centre (PPCC) was identified as an integral part of CanKids objective to improve the quality of life for cancer children and their families.