The Martelise Meaker Children’s
In-Patient Unit
Providing specialised care and support for young patients facing life-limiting illnesses.
Martelise Meaker, Stepping Stone’s first young patient, left an indelible mark on our organisation at the young age of 11. Our children’s unit is named in her honour and dedicated to her memory, ensuring her legacy lives on in the lives of countless children to come.
In South Africa, there are an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 children living with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, necessitating child-centred palliative care.
About Child-Centred Palliative Care
Child-centred palliative care in South Africa is designed to meet the holistic needs of children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, ensuring they receive comprehensive care that addresses their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.
The care provided is a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach that aims to provide the best possible quality of life for children with life-limiting conditions and their families.
The differences between adult and paediatric palliative care are significant and revolve around the distinct needs and developmental stages of children versus adults:
Developmental Considerations: Paediatric palliative care must consider the child’s developmental stage and how their understanding of illness and death evolves. It involves engaging with the child at an age-appropriate level and supporting their developmental needs.
Family-Centred Care: Paediatric palliative care is inherently family-centred. It involves parents and siblings in the care process, recognising the profound impact on the entire family. Support services extend to family members to help them cope with the child’s illness.
Communication: Communication with paediatric patients requires tailoring to their developmental level. It often involves using play, art and other child-friendly methods to help the child-patient express their feelings and understand their condition.
Decision-Making: Decision-making in paediatric palliative care often involves the parents or guardians, with the child’s input being considered according to their age and understanding. Ethical considerations include balancing the child’s best interests with family wishes.
Goals of Care: The goals of paediatric palliative care include enhancing quality of life, supporting normal development and maximising the child’s participation in usual childhood activities. There is also a focus on hope and achieving as many normal life milestones as possible.
Interventions: Interventions often include therapies aimed at growth and development, such as physical, occupational and speech therapies. There is also a significant emphasis on educational support to help the child continue their schooling as much as possible.
Ethical Considerations: Ethical issues in paediatric palliative care often involve the best interest standard, parental rights and the child’s evolving autonomy. Balancing the wishes of the child and the parents can be complex.
Settings of Care: Paediatric palliative care is often provided in specialised children’s hospitals, home-care settings, long-term care facilities and hospices designed for children. Inter-disciplinary teams include paediatric specialists who understand the unique needs of children.
The aim of paediatric palliative care is to create a loving space for children to experience comfort, joy and dignity, even in the face of immense challenges.
Who Qualifies for Paediatric Palliative Care?
- Children with any life-limiting illness – from the time of diagnosis
- Children diagnosed with a rare disease
- Children diagnosed with cancer
- Children diagnosed with HIV/Aids
How Stepping Stone Palliative Care Services Can Help
Home-Care Nursing
- We have an inter-disciplinary team, comprising palliative-trained medical and nursing professionals, care workers and psychosocial workers that provide coordinated care in the comfort and familiarity of a patient’s home environment.
- Our home care sisters assist in managing symptoms such as pain, nausea, constipation, incontinence, bed sores, and disturbed sleeping patterns, as well as offer advice on dietary problems. This is done under the direction and advice of our Care Services Manager and the patient’s own specialist and/or general practitioner.
- All home care visits are planned and an appointment is made prior to any visit. This could be once a month, once a week, twice a week or more frequently, depending on the needs and condition of the patient.
- Our home care sisters are available Monday to Friday, from 08:00 to 16:00. They can also be contacted telephonically during office hours.
- Only Emergency Calls will be taken after hours. There is one sister on call over a weekend for emergencies (for registered hospice patients only) – from Fridays 14:00 to Mondays 07:00.
Our children’s in-patient unit has 8 beds.
Criteria for Admission to the IPU:
- Management of pain and difficult symptoms that are not being relieved at home.
- For the terminal stage of illness.
- To allow family members a short period of respite from caring for the patient at home. (Should it be necessary for the patient to be admitted into the IPU, an information booklet about the unit will be given to the patient and family.)
Please note: Our IPU has no formal visiting hours – we encourage families to spend as much time as possible with their beloved child.
Other Services
- Bereavement counselling
- Counselling and support for families of children living with a life-limiting illness
- Loan of equipment (to registered hospice patents ONLY)
How to Access Paediatric Palliative Care
- All patients are required to register on our Palliative Care Programme. This can be done by contacting Stepping Stone Palliative Care Services, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 16:00 on 010 442 5059.
- Either a parent or guardian, the patient’s doctor, social worker or other appropriate person can get in touch with us.
- We stipulate that the parents have agreed to palliative care and are aware that we have been approached.
- Once the intake documentation has been completed and a medical report from the doctor and/or medical aid has been received, a nurse from the unit will do an assessment visit.
- There is a once-off admin fee of R250, which is payable when the patient is registered (this is not covered by medical aid and needs to be paid to the assigned nurse).
Who Pays for Paediatric Palliative Care?
- For patients on a medical scheme, all accounts for our services will be submitted by us to the medical-aid fund for payment at their approved rates and tariffs.
- Private (non-medical aid) patients are charged an agreed-upon fee per visit/per day in the IPU. Provision of our services is however NOT dependent on the ability to pay.
Characteristics of Paediatric Palliative Care
- Begins as early as when a life-limiting illness is diagnosed.
- Addresses the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of the child and their family.
- Considers the child’s age, understanding of death and coping mechanisms.
- Actively involves the family in care and provides emotional and practical support.
- Maximises the child’s enjoyment of life, even if a cure is not possible.
- Effectively manages pain and other physical symptoms.
- Provides emotional and psychological support for the child, parents and siblings.
- Uses an inter-disciplinary team approach to palliative care.
- Encourages age-appropriate discussions about illness and respects the child’s wishes.
Contact Us
For general enquiries (including new patient registrations), please call Stepping Stone Palliative Care Services during office hours.
Monday to Friday – 08:00 to 16:00
Tel: 010 442 5059
Email: info@steppingstonehospice.co.za
We’re opening a Children’s Unit and we need your help!
Stepping Stone Hospice & Care Services will be opening a children’s in-patient unit in the coming months. This vital project will provide specialised care and support for young patients facing life-threatening illnesses.
There is a critical shortage of facilities dedicated to children’s palliative care. This unit, to be named after Stepping Stone’s first young patient, Martelise Meaker, who was only 11 years old and left an indelible mark on our organisation.
The unit will offer 10 beds, with three rooms providing ample space for parents to stay overnight, as well as play and study areas – all within a warm and welcoming environment designed to help minimise stress and anxiety.
How you can help
Funds are needed for medical equipment, paediatric medical beds and operational costs, amongst other things. We have a long Wish List to make this unit a reality:
Children’s In-Patient Unit – Priority Needs:
3 x Electric Care Hospital Beds with Side Rails (Teenager)
1 x Pressure Care Mattress – High-Risk Pressure Care Rating (Teenager)
1 x Hoist and Sling
2 x Epoxy-Coated, Semi-Fowler Child Beds (Toddler to Pre-Teen)
4 x Paediatric Cots/Cribs with Apnoea Mattresses
MHE-BACC Baby Bassinet (including Mattress) and Perspex Crib
MHE-CBAD Child Cot Bed with Drop-Down Cot Sides
4 x Small Wheelchair or Stroller (High Level of Support with Tilt In Space
10 x Leather Recliners
5 x Paediatric Oxygen Concentrators (0-2L Oxygen)
Suction Pump (with Battery Operation) & Suction Catheters
4 x Syringe Drivers (including Equipment for S/C Medications)
1 x Feeding Pump (NGT Equipment)
10 x Drip Stands
4 x Overbed Tables
Baby Scale
Lockable Medicine Trolley (JDEFE254-A)
5 x Nebulisers
Bath Lift
10 x Bedside Lockers (MHE-BLABSW)
NeoGuard with 10 Bands
10 x Glove Dispensers (MHE-PLC300C)
Linen Trolley (MHE-RECBPL) Rectangular Plastic trolley
Welch Allyn Al-Plus Diagnostic Set (WA97250BIL)
2 x Wall-Mounted Drug Cupboards
2 x Bedscreens with PVC Curtain
Medical equipment is available from MEDICARE: https://www.medicare.co.za
If you can assist with any of the items listed or would like to make a general donation to the new unit, kindly contact us 010 442 5059 or email tersia@steppingstonehospice.co.za
“Every contribution, big or small, will bring us closer to our goal. Together we can create a very special place for these brave children and their families.” – Hospice CEO, Tersia Burger
