About the Belarussian Children's Hospice
The Belarussian Children's Hospice was the first children's hospice in the former Soviet Union. Today it has launched the children's hospice movement within Belarus and the first mobile adult hospice based in Minsk, the capital.
Since its foundation in 1994, the Belarussian Children's Hospice has cared for chronically ill and dying children and their families. Its doctors and nurses have frequently made daily journeys of seven hours or more to look after desperately ill children all over the country. The hospice provides counselling, care training and material support to the families of dying children, and continues to work with them after the death of the child. It trains medical personnel and psychologists in palliative care and psychological support. It has set up three children's hospices in other cities around Belarus. The hospice does not charge patients or their families for its services or for drugs and medicines.
Belarus is squeezed between much larger neighbours - Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Following the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine, 24% of Belarus' territory was irradiated. There is a Closed Zone in the south from which entire populations were evacuated in the wake of the disaster. 67% of the hospice's young patients suffer from cancer. Many others suffer from immune deficiency and life limiting genetic disorders.
The idea of palliative care is still new in Belarus. There is little official recognition of palliative care, particularly at home. Dying or chronically ill children are generally hidden in the general wards of badly overcrowded and underfunded hospitals or sent home to die unsupported by medical staff. The Belarussian Children's Hospice cares for these children at home and provides support and counselling to their families. Many families have now set up self-help groups under the Hospice's guidance. Some local Belarussian companies are now also supporting the hospice but it will be many years before public awareness in Belarus is such that the hospice will be able to survive without western aid. At the moment the hospice relies on western grants for 90% of its income, these include EU grants and support from Friends of the Belarussian Children's Hospice (UK) and other NGOs. The hospice now has a member of staff who is responsible for developing indigenous sponsorship within Belarus.
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| 1. Hospice at Home - | regular visits to a child at home by a hospice team to provide medical and other care including pain control, monitoring, physiotherapy, play therapy, counselling and material support for families | 
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| 2. Mobile Hospice Response Team - | urgent medical assistance taken to terminally ill children living within 250 km radius of Minsk | 
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| 3. Mini ward at Hospice - | 5 beds for children and accommodation for three families of patients at main hospice building (Vera's House). This accommodation is used for seriously ill children discharged from hospital whose parents need to be trained how to care for them at home or for children in the final stages of terminal illness who need twenty four hour medical supervision. | 
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| 4. Day Centre - | open four days a week for groups of chronically or terminally ill children, it also runs sibling groups. The Day Centre is staffed by professional child psychologists, play therapists, counsellors and medical staff. | 
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| 5. Social Programme - | outings, holidays, group activities. Most of the young patients spend their lives at home as facilities for the disabled are practically non-existent in Belarus. The Hospice minibus takes small groups of children on outings. | 
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| 6. Parents' Club - | organised by bereaved parents to support each other. It now runs self-help groups around the country and does some awareness-raising and fund-raising for the Hospice. | 
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| 7. Working with Parents - | bereavement counselling and support for parents following the death of a child. | 
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| 8. Siblings - | often neglected during the prolonged illness and death of a child in the family, the siblings also need support and counselling which the Hospice provides. | 
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| 9. Doctor Clown - | very popular among housebound children who due to prolonged illness and isolation do not have much laughter in their lives. Doctor Clown visits them and cheers them up. | 
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| 10. Volunteers' Programme - | the Hospice has a volunteer co-ordinator who recruits volunteers (mostly students and members of patients' families) to help at the Day Centre and on days out, to visit patients and families, to help decorate rooms, help with administrative tasks etc. | 
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| 11. Summer House - | based at a site outside Minsk in the countryside, this programme works with groups of up to 12 children in a holiday environment, giving them the opportunity to have fun in the fresh air and to socialise with other children. The holidays are run by trained professionals backed up by volunteers who help run activities. There are two categories of group: i) seriously ill children whose medical care allows them to travel; ii) siblings, ie children with a brother or sister in the terminal stages of illness. | 
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| 12. Stork Centre Respite Care for Families - | holidays in the countryside with medical support for families with seriously ill children. | 
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| 13. Publishing Programme - | translation into Russian and publication of key works and training manuals etc on palliative care and hospice work. | 
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| 14. Training Programme - | running since 2001 in conjunction with the Belarussian Medical Academy Postgraduate Training Department. The programme is delivered by staff at the Belarussian Children's Hospice to Belarussian medical professionals and care professionals. | 
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