Abstract · In March 2016, a group of healthcare professionals from Europe, Canada, Lebanon and the USA met in Trento, Italy to discuss the current situation of paediatric palliative care in Europe. This group was called ’the International Meeting for Palliative Care in Children, Trento (IMPaCCT)’ (see Box 1) and is sponsored by the Maruzza Lefebvre d’Ovidio Foundation (Rome), the Livia Benini Foundation (Florence) and the No Pain for Children Association (Trento).

Over the three-day meeting, professionals compared paediatric palliative care services across a number of different countries, defined the term ’paediatric palliative care’, identified the best practices, and agreed on minimum standards. As a result, a European-level document emerged from the meeting, defining and formulating standards of care for children with life-limiting and terminal illness. IMPaCCT recommends that these standards be implemented in all European countries.

FINELLA CRAIG , Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Care, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK; HUDA ABU-SAAD HUIJER, Professor of Nursing Science, American University of Beirut, Lebanon; FRANCA BENINI Consultant in Paediatric Pain and Palliative Care, University of Padua, Italy ; LEORA KUTTNER, Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Professor of Paediatrics, British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; CHANTAL WOOD, Consultant in Paediatric Pain and Palliative Care, Hópital Robert Debré, Paris, France; PAOLO CORNAGLIA FERRARIS, Scientific Director, Maruzza Lefebvre d’Ovidio Foundation, Rome, Italy; BORIS ZERNIKOW, Director of the Vodafone Institute of Children’s Pain Therapy and Paediatric Palliative Care, Datteln, Germany

IMPaCCT: Standards for Paediatric Palliative Care in Europe. European Journal of Palliative Care 2007, 14 (3): 109-114.

Abstract · My hypothesis is that a management with marketing approach can significantly contribute to the success of the service that provides hospice care and to the spreading of the hospice mentality. As we aim to offer quality work in the area of patient care, we plan and organize hospice care in accordance with the protocols of the profession and by using case management; it is also necessary to operate in a consciously planned, organized, and controlled way in the management board. We have to continuously analyse, evaluate, and improve our management strategies as well, in order to be able to work in a balanced manner and to be able to operate in the long run in spite of the continuously changing circumstances.

In my paper, based on my hospice and marketing experiences that I gained through the launching and the operation of our service, I present the characteristics of the two areas and the connection between them. In other words, I analyse hospice care from a marketing point of view, and I interpret marketing work from a hospice point of view.

Abstract · The present study explores the phenomena of visual media, since according to our hypothesis, these widely used media outlets considerably influence the value judgement of people in present-day Hungary. The most vulnerable segment of our society is composed of children and minors, as it is mainly them who see film scenarios as models to follow. Since in contemporary media portraying death and dying has gained an important role, our goal was to examine the influence of the media on our concept of death and on our attitude towards death.

Abstract · There are a number of thanatology studies that emphasize the need to talk to children about death. Educating children about death is important because our modern society does not prepare us to accept the naturalness of death. Nowadays, children are mostly exposed to images of violent death. According to Alaine Polcz, children should be helped to understand death and to process mourning, because unprocessed losses can hinder their development. Traditionally, knowledge about death has been transmitted by way of rituals in the framework of which children could physically see dying and deceased relatives. Since there are only few studies in Transylvania regarding these issues, I have decided to examine this topic in more detail in my study.

The aim of my study was to examine the image of death in young schoolchildren through analysis of their drawings as my selected research method. The relationship to death is in a process of transformation in the examined population: although tradition and upbringing still play an important role, the role of the media is also gradually increasing in children’s lives. My research has led to the conclusion that the majority of schoolchildren in Targu Mures (Romania) are still aware of the rites related to the dead, but they are already affected by the violent death images transmitted by the media.