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Palliative Care Essay

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The prevalence rate of pediatric diagnoses of incurable and/or terminal illnesses across the Western world remains quite high, despite technological and scientific advances (Benini, Spizzichino, Trapanotto, & Ferrante, 2008). According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 42,328 children died in the year of 2013. Due to the prevalence rate of pediatric mortality, the National Institute of Health (NIH) launched a campaign to increase the accessibility of palliative care for these children, to reduce the suffering of the terminal patient and his/her family (National Institute of Health, 2016).
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care for children as a service that is provided to the terminally ill and their families to alleviate and prevent the suffering of both the patient and their loved ones. Palliative care addresses physical, spiritual, psychological, and social stressors in the family’s life from the time of the diagnosis to the death of the child. Following the death of the child, most palliative care organizations provide a type of bereavement support …show more content…
The loss-oriented processes are related to experiencing the intrusions of grief and processing their loss; while the restoration-oriented processes addressed discovering ways to recognize changes in their life and integrating the death of their loved one into their “new life” (Stroebe & Shchut, 1999). Neimeyer (2001) posited the central process in grieving revolved around meaning reconstruction. In other words, redefining the bereaved individual’s world after a devastating loss by redefining who he/she is without his/her loved one (Neimyer, 2001). This is imperative for individuals who have lost a child considering their identity is partially defined by being a parent (Neimyer,

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