RESUMO
The International Children's Palliative Care Network held its second international conference on children's palliative care in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the 18th-21st May 2016. The theme of the conference was 'Children's Palliative Care . Now!' emphasising the need for palliative care for children now, as the future will be too late for many of them. Six pre-conference workshops were held, addressing issues connected to pain assessment and management, adolescent palliative care, ethics and decision-making, developing programmes, the basics of children's palliative care, and hidden aspects of children's palliative care. The conference brought together 410 participants from 40 countries. Plenary, concurrent, and poster presentations covered issues around the status of children's palliative care, genetics, perinatal and neonatal palliative care, the impact of children's palliative care and the experiences of parents and volunteers, palliative care as a human right, education in children's palliative care, managing complex pain in children, spiritual care and when to initiate palliative care. The 'Big Debate' explored issues around decision-making and end of life care in children, and gave participants the opportunity to explore a sensitive and thought provoking topic. At the end of the conference, delegates were urged to sign the Commitment of Buenos Aires which called for governments to implement the WHA resolution and ensure access to palliative care for neonates, children and their families, and also commits us as palliative care providers to share all that we can and collaborate with each other to achieve the global vision of palliative care for all children who need it. The conference highlighted the ongoing issues in children's palliative care and participants were continually challenged to ensure that children can access palliative care NOW.
RESUMO
Children's palliative care (CPC) is a specialty in itself, albeit closely related to adult palliative care (World Health Organization (WHO), 2002). However, although there are many children who require palliative care, in much of the world CPC has a poor profile and is inaccessible to those who need it (Downing et al, 2010; Knapp et al, 2011). The provision of high-quality palliative care for children is a global concern, with 27% of the world population being under the age of 15, rising to as many as 49% in countries such as Uganda (WHO, 2010). It has been estimated that as many as 7 million of these children around the world will need palliative care each year (Rushton et al, 2002), although the true figure is likely to be higher. The public health approach to palliative care is key to the development of CPC services, as is the development of models that integrate services into existing health structures.
