HOLISTIC CARE AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

The Use and Effectiveness of a Multidisciplinary Team Approach In Relation To the Holistic Care and Education of Children of Minor Ages

The Use and Effectiveness of a Multidisciplinary Team Approach In Relation To the Holistic Care and Education of Children of Minor Ages

Introduction

Multidisciplinary teams are groups of professionals from diverse disciplines who come together to provide comprehensive assessment and consultation in abuse cases. While their primary purpose is typically to help team members resolve difficult cases, teams may fulfill a variety of additional functions. They also enhance the professional skills and knowledge of individual team members by providing a forum for learning more about the strategies, resources, and approaches used by various disciplines. This paper discusses the use and effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team approach in relation to the holistic care and education of children in a concise and comprehensive way (Hallet, 2008).They can promote coordination between agencies; provide a "checks and balances" mechanism to ensure that the interests and rights of all concerned parties are addressed; and identify service gaps and breakdowns in coordination or communication between agencies or individuals (Kay, 2008).

The Use and Effectiveness of a Multidisciplinary Team Approach In Relation To the Holistic Care and Education of Children of Minor Ages

Helen House, the first children's hospice in the UK opened in 1982. After the pioneering work of that development, there was a great commitment to quality within the children's hospice movement, which expanded rapidly during the nineties. The philosophy underlying the highly individual holistic care that children's hospices offered to children and families did much to inform and promote the development of children's palliative care (Macleod, Brudenell, 2008). However, there was no nationally accepted quality framework for children's hospice services and it was in response to this need that the Association of Children's Hospices (ACH) set up its quality assurance project. In March 2004, ACH held a celebratory event to mark the publication of its quality assurance package, Are we getting it right?. Delegates from 25 of the UK children's hospices heard how the package was developed specifically for children's hospice services, supported by a steering group of six members comprising two heads of care of children's hospices, a research adviser, two other members of children's hospice care teams and the ACH care development manager.

Why a Specific Package?

As the children's hospice movement expands, systematic quality measures become more necessary. Children and their families, together with the professionals who care for them, need a means of knowing that there is consistency of care throughout children's hospice services. Quality measures must reflect the philosophy of children's hospices which focuses on tailoring care to individual needs, with quality of human relationships at the centre of their concerns (Cheminais, 2009). There is also a perceived need by the Association of Children's Hospices (ACH) to take control of its own quality (www.cwdcouncil.org.uk)

Although a number of quality assurance (QA) tools are available, they tend to be geared towards the needs of services for ...