Pediatric Palliative Care in Poland

Abstract

Alone among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, a groundswell towards hospices began in Poland in 1972, while the country was still under communism domination. Societal movement of “Solidarity”, strongly supported by the Polish Catholic Church and particularly His Holiness Pope John Paul II, the greatest among Poles, brought not only freedom to the country and democracy in 1989, but also liberated the positive potential of society. As a result, the first professional home care team, Hospitium Pallotinum, started in Gdansk in 1984, due to the impact of the Catholic Church. Since that time more than 160 hospices for adults have been established. Following the growth of adult hospices, the first specialist home care hospice for children in Poland, a beacon for Eastern and Central Europe, was founded by Dr. Tomasz Dangel in 1994. Warsaw Hospice for Children (WHC) is an exemplary home care program, which operates on standards based on British ACT principles. It has developed an education program in pediatric palliative care, and has supported the development of several similar teams or sections of pediatric palliative care in hospices for adults in Poland and some other European countries as well. Today, there are 36 hospices in Poland providing professional pediatric palliative care, covering almost 93% of the childhood population. In November 2007, a federation of Polish hospices providing professional care for children was established. This official body aimed at lobbying for the interests of pediatric palliative care among Polish decision makers, mostly politicians and officials from Parliament, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund. A precise description of the background of Polish pediatric palliative care, history of its development, achievements and targets for the future establish the core of this chapter.