Serious health-related suffering experienced by children with disability and their families living in Bangladesh: A scoping review

Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Suzanne Smith (Master of Palliative Care student, Flinders University, Australia; Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service, Australia), Dr Megan Doherty (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada; Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada) and Dr Mostofa Kamal Chowdhury (BangabandhuSheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh).

What is already known about the topic:

• The majority of children who need, but cannot access essential palliative care and pain relief, live in low-and middle-income countries.
• An estimated 10 million Bangladeshi children live with a disability and associated serious health-related suffering that may lead to premature death.
• Children from low- and middle-income countries are underrepresented or absent from existing palliative care reviews.

What this paper adds:

• This review illuminates the extreme health-related suffering experienced by children with disability and their families in Bangladesh in the physical, social, and emotional/spiritual domains.
• Financial hardship, stigma, limited knowledge and compromised children’s rights impede access to healthcare in Bangladesh.
• Children with disability living in an urban marginalised society and Rohingya children with disability living in refugee camps in Bangladesh may receive care commensurate with the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care revised definition of palliative care

Implications for practice, theory or policy:

• This review identifies innovative and novel models of effective service delivery, outside of mainstream healthcare settings, which combine both palliative care and rehabilitation principles.
• Further strengthening Child Rights in Bangladesh will reduce serious health-related suffering.
• Collaborations between Bangladeshi and International researchers are productive and should continue to inform future service development.

Full paper available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163221136896 If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu: [e-mail]