In response to popular demand, four pre-congress workshops on different themes of significant interest have been scheduled.  The workshops, lead by eminent International paediatric palliative care experts will run simultaneously on Wednesday the 16th November 2016 from 8.30 to 16.30.

Please note that pre-conference workshops can only be booked on-line congress registration page in connection with the registration for the congress.

Participation in the pre-congress workshops will be limited to a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 80 participants, places will be allocated on a first come first-served basis.

Registration for the pre-congress workshops closes on the 30th October 2016.

Fees for Participants include:

• Attendance in the selected workshop
• Refreshments and lunch

Title: TREATING DISTRESSING SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN WITH SERIOUS ILLNESSES

Date: 16th November 2016
Duration: 1-day (08.30 -16.30)
Coordinator: Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf
Co presenters: Wendy Cristhyna Gómez García – Barbara Sourkes
Intended Audience: Clinicians caring for children with serious illness.
Min Capacity: 30 pers.
Max Capacity: 80 pers.
Description:
This course will address an interdisciplinary approach to caring for children with serious illness. The specific topics covered are:
• To live as well as possible, as long as possible
• Pain Management in Infants & Children with Serious Illness: From Myths, Morphine and Multimodal Analgesia
• Considering what your child is up against, what are you hoping for? – Practicing opioid
• Children’s Experience of Symptoms: Narratives through Words and Images
• Advanced Pain Prevention and Treatment in Paediatric Palliative Care: From Neuropathic, Visceral, Psycho-social-spiritual and Chronic pain
• Treating Respiratory Symptoms in Paediatric Palliative Care: From Dyspnoea to Noisy Breathing

Title: END-OF-LIFE CARE: A TASTE OF THE EPEC-PAEDIATRICS CURRICULUM

Date: 16th November 2016
Duration: 1-day (08.30 -16.30)
Coordinator: Joanne Wolfe
Co presenters: Justin Baker – Angela Feraco – Barbara Jones – Kathleen Perko
Intended Audience: Interdisciplinary clinicians caring for children with serious illness and their families.
Min Capacity: 30 pers.
Max Capacity: 80 pers.
Description:
Using materials and teaching strategies from the Education in Palliative and End-of-life Care (EPEC) Paediatrics curriculum, this course will address an interdisciplinary approach to caring for children with serious illness at end of life, along with their families, and the clinicians caring for them. The specific objectives will include:
1. Identify important end-of-life communication and advance care planning topics and practice addressing them.
2.Describe common sources of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual child and family distress at end of life, including terminal emergencies, and apply strategies to remedy them.
3.Strategize about caring for ourselves as professionals while caring for children at end of life.
4.Discuss approaches to teaching paediatric end-of-life care and practice using them.
Teaching methods will include interactive lectures, small group case-based discussions and role play. Evaluation methods will include quantitative and qualitative feedback on session exercises.

Title: DECISION MAKING ABOUT CARE AND TREATMENT

Date: 16th November 2016
Duration: 1 day (08.30 -16.30)
Coordinator: Myra Bluebond-Langner
Co presenters: Dilini Rajapakse – Maggie Comac
Intended Audience: Health care professionals (nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, child specialists, clergy, consultants, etc)
Min Capacity: 30 pers.
Max Capacity: 80 pers.
Description:
Assistance and support of patients and families in decision making about care and treatment is a core competence in palliative care. Proceeding from the premise that practice should be informed by research we begin the workshop with a review of what is known about the experiences and roles of patients, parents and clinicians in the decision making process over the entire course of the illness – from diagnosis through death.
We then apply this understanding to our discussions of case studies from, North America, Middle East, UK and Europe. Among the issues to be reviewed are: children and parents’ understanding of options for care and treatment, clinicians presentations of these options, the children’s and parents’ uptake of those options, the child’s role in decision making, preference in place of care and place of death, do not resuscitate orders, withdrawing and withholding nutrition and ventilation.
Grounded by research we will develop recommendations for research and practice which addresses the physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of children and families. Recommendations will be sensitive to the cultures and societies of which they are a part as well as in the institutions in which care and treatment are delivered (e.g. home, hospitals and hospices).

Title: SETTING UP RESEARCH IN CHILDREN’S PALLIATIVE CARE

Date: 16th November 2016
Duration: 1-day (08.30 -16.30)
Coordinator: Julia Downing
Co presenters: Jayne Galinsky – Liz Grant
Intended Audience: Anyone interested in doing palliative care in children
Min Capacity: 30 pers.
Max Capacity: 80 pers.
Description:
This one-day workshop will explore some of the issues regarding research in children’s palliatve care (CPC), including: priorities for research, ethical issues, consent vs. assent, the language of research, how to work with children with communication problems, measuring outcomes of care.
The workshop will be interactive in format and will involve some sharing of research in the field, along with some case studies for discussion.
By the end of the workshop it is anticipated that participants will be able to:
• Discuss some of the priorities for research into CPC.
• Discuss some of the challenges in doing research in CPC and some ways these may be overcome.
• Identify different tools or frameworks that can be used to help in CPC research.
• Identify some key questions for research into CPC in their work place.