Vad-Berind Cloister(pediatric palliative medical centre tended by a monastery)

Issu

e no

. 2, F

ebru

ary

2011

The team undertaking this project is made up of

Mihai Baba - architecture

Horaţiu Borza - finance

Liviu Bran - PR

INDEX

4. Initiative

5. Ethics

6. Architecture

14. Reactions

14. Timeline

4

INITIATIVE

"The older we get, the more entitled we feel ... we sort of expect that we're going to live to be 100 or we’re going to be rich or we’re going to be this or we’re going to be that. Kids don’t have that sense of entitlement; they sort of live in the present more than we do." This quote from Sarah Friebert, MD, director of the Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center, was featured in a recent CNN story about children facing terminal or life-threatening illnesses.

DefinitionThe World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care for children as :- The active total care of the child’s body, mind and spirit, and also involves giving support to the family. - It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease.- Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child’s physical, psychological, and social distress.- Effective PC requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources ; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited.- It can be provided in tertiary care facilities, in community health centers and even in children’s homes.

The goal of these children-based institutions is to provide family-centered care that respects the dignity and uniqueness of every child and family.These centers of palliative care function not only as hospitals, but as institutions where children do benefit of all the needs specific to the age, from different games to intellectual activities. Besides, children are provided expert specialists’ pain and symptom management. Thus, palliative care becomes both a philosophy and an organized program for delivering care to children with life-threatening (terminal) conditions. This care focuses on enhancing quality of life for the child and family, minimizing suffering, optimizing function and providing opportunities for personal growth.Pediatric palliative care refers to patient- and family-centered care which is achieved through a combination of active and compassionate therapies intended to comfort and support the child, as well as family members. Effective management of pain and other distressing symptoms, together with emotional, social and spiritual care are the core of care provided by the palliative care team. The goal is to help patients and their families live as normally as possible and to provide them with timely and accurate information and support in decision-making. Respite care and care through death and bereavement also are components of palliative care. Such care and assistance are not limited to people thought to be dying and can be provided concurrently with curative or life-prolonging treatments.There are several Palliative Centers in the United States, obviously the most preoccupied country in the world regarding this side of medical care. They function either linked to hospitals, or as hospitals themselves (sections of some pediatric clinics), or built by non-profit organizations.The Romanian society would strongly benefit from the existence of such a palliative care unit. The need exists, but unfortunately the lack of funding and the size of such a project blinds even the most optimistic views.

With continued exposure to the palliative care process, the nursing staff at the monastery will become more skilled and comfortable with both pharmacologic and psychological approaches to patients and families. The palliative care approach will also become more familiar to the primary pediatric physicians. The pediatric supportive care team would provide continuing education for all staff caring for palliative care patients. Health care professionals attending to children facing life-threatening conditions must be willing and able to discuss the possibility of death, the potential for physical and emotional suffering, and the strategies for its prevention and treatment frankly.

5

ETHICS

to be added soon...

6

ARCHITECTURE: strategy

to be added soon...

7

8

ARCHITECTURE: perspective views

9

10

Reinterpretation of the 18th century church

ARCHITECTURE: ground level

11

12

ARCHITECTURE: other leves

13

REACTIONS

14

to be added soon...

TIMELINE

YEAR January-June July-December2010 - preliminary studies

2011 architecture (for autorisations) architecture (for construction)

financial plan (project) financial plan (submission)

2012 construction (infrastructure) construction (buildings)

2013 construction (buildings) construction (buildings)

2014 inauguration (cloister) inaguration (facility)

www.vadberindcloister.tk