The Flamingo children’s hospice will accommodate up to eight children and young people at its Fällanden site in the canton of Zurich. From the end of 2025, families will be able to benefit from this unique offer on a beautiful plot close to Lake Greifensee and with a view of the Alpine panorama. The children’s hospice will be a special place to relieve stress and “recharge your batteries” – with the opportunity to exchange ideas with others who are equally affected: A place where people live, laugh and play, but where dying and mourning also have their place.
The holistic care and support combined with the appropriate infrastructure should enable those affected to take a break from their exhausting everyday lives. The focus is not only on the care of the sick child, but also on the needs of the parents and siblings. The Flamingo children’s hospice offers a unique stay for the whole family:
holistic | relieving | unique.
The Flamingo Children’s Hospice was initiated by the“Stiftung Kinderhospiz Schweiz” Currently, intensive work is being done on the realisation of the project and the broad “network” is being expanded.
What exactly is a children’s hospice? Questions like these and helpful answers can be found in the FAQs!
The Flamingo Children’s Hospice is a new building project in Fällanden, county of Zurich. Eight care rooms are provided for children with life-limiting illnesses. Their families find a place of retreat in the eight family rooms.
The building project is managed by an interprofessional team with competences in nursing, real estate management and business administration as well as the architectural office apb Architekten AG Uster. The new building will provide the best possible environment for the comprehensive care of the sick children and the support, care, and counselling for the families.
Eight modern care rooms for children with life-limiting illnesses and a common lounge area form the heart of the Flamingo Children’s Hospice. Further rooms for various therapies, a room for silence, a “Snoezelen -room” and the garden with sun terrace enable care in comprehensive paediatric palliative care. On the first floor there are eight family rooms and a lounge area with its own kitchen as a retreat for the families. The multi-purpose room on the second floor offers space for parties, events, and training sessions for up to 50 people
Information on the construction project is updated on an ongoing basis. To find out more about the development of the Flamingo children’s hospice project, subscribe to our free newsletter.
The care and therapy services at the Flamingo Children’s Hospice are carefully tailored to the needs of the sick children and their families. Various therapies and the professional Paediatric palliative care (PPC) is applied in a comprehensive concept by a multi-professional team.
Paediatric palliative care
Paediatric palliative care is provided by specifically trained nursing staff. The focus is on the well-being and health of the children concerned. The nursing team will embrace and care for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families in various life situations at the children’s hospice:
- registered through the paediatric clinics
- from home, for paediatric palliative transitional care
- from home, in the end-of-life phase
- 24/7 paediatric palliative transitional care, directly after discharge from the children’s hospital
- when care is temporarily not provided by outpatient services
- when caring relatives take a “carer’s leave for relatives” in or outside the children’s hospice
Medical care
Most of the children afflicted are registered with a specialist doctor providing care and are already involved in paediatric palliative outpatient care. This medical care is continued at the Flamingo Children’s Hospice. If an afflicted child does not have a PPC care team, one will be set up by the Flamingo Children’s Hospice.
Medical questions are usually clarified with this medical team. he Flamingo Children’s Hospice team plays a supporting role and works together with these doctors.
For acute questions and problems, the children’s hospice provides a quickly available paediatric palliative care specialist and a 24/7 specialist background service.
Therapies
The holistic approach of paediatric palliative care includes not only nursing and medical care, but also various therapies. At the beginning of a stay at the Flamingo Children’s Hospice, the needs and wishes are discussed in detail with the families.
A paediatric physiotherapy specialist will be available daily to ensure the children’s well-being. ther therapies are offered according to need and possibility. These include, among others:
- remedial education
- psychotherapy
- occupational therapy
- music therapy
- art therapy
- painting therapy
- animal-assisted therapy
Psychosocial and socio-educational services
The services offered at the children’s hospice are not only centred around the child with a life-limiting illness, but also their parents, siblings, and relatives. The burden is often overwhelming and very complex. The high level of care required causes psychological and physical problems, interpersonal relationships suffer, and financial situations deteriorates. At the children’s hospice, families benefit from services that enable them to continue caring lovingly for their children at home.
The following services are planned for families at the Flamingo children’s hospice:
- Pastoral care: care regardless of religion and denomination
- Social work: counselling and assistance with social insurance and services
- Psychotherapy: Therapeutic care for all family members
- Early counselling: counselling for parents of newborns and babies with life-limiting illnesses
- Care: counselling and skills development for the family by the care team
- Bereavement counselling: support for the family’s grieving process, after death
- Siblings: care and occupation of siblings by the psychosocial team
- If desired, family members can also take part in the therapies of the sick child.
The most common questions
What is a children’s hospice?
A children’s hospice is a place of retreat, a place of regeneration, strength and joy of life, (joie de vivre). Families with children suffering from a life-limiting illness receive accommodation including professional support, care, and counselling.
The children’s hospice fully supports the family system and strengthens it in this abnormal life situation. There are many reasons for such a temporary stay: periods of unstable health, therapy adjustments, therapy evaluations, transitional and bridging moments and periods, care, and relief for the entire family system.
Parents and siblings, together with the afflicted children, are supported by professional paediatric palliative care and interdisciplinary cooperation in a wide range of socio-educational and socio-psychological areas. They should be given time with a high quality of life according to their needs.
The afflicted children, their parents and siblings are given individualised support regarding the death of their child/sibling. Their resources are activated, and coping strategies are developed. This includes acknowledging personal responsibility, building-up self-confidence, developing self-compassion, strengthening self-esteem and living self-determination.
What is paediatric palliative care?
Paediatric palliative care – adapted from the WHO definition – is defined in Europe as follows: “Palliative care for children is understood to be active and comprehensive care that takes equal account of the child’s body, soul and spirit and ensures support for the afflicted family. It begins with the diagnosis and is independent of whether the child receives treatment with curative objectives.”
It is the task of the professionals to assess and minimise the extent of the physical, psychological and social stress on the child. Effective paediatric palliative care is only possible with the help of a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and public resources. It can be successfully implemented even when resources are scarce.
In short, paediatric palliative care enables sick children and their families to enjoy a high quality of life despite their difficult situation.
What does paediatric palliative transitional care mean?
A children’s hospice is an ideal facility for paediatric palliative transitional care and closes the care gap between an acute hospital and care at home. In various situations, families, hospitals, and paediatric home care organisations can be relieved in equal measure and the sick children can be offered a higher quality of life.
Transitions occur in the following situations, among others:
- Paediatric clinic – PPÜP – home
- Paediatric clinic – PPÜP – until outpatient services are organised for care at home
- Paediatric clinic – PPÜP – end of life phase
- At home – PPÜP in times of crisis – back home after the crisis
- At home – PPÜP – end of life phase
How long can a family stay at Flamingo Children’s Hospice?
This varies and is agreed individually with the families, medical teams, and children’s Spitex organisations providing care. Repeated stays of three to 20 days at a time are common. n special cases, a family can stay at the Flamingo children’s hospice for a maximum of three months.
When is the opening planned?
If everything goes well, we will open the pilot operation at the end of 2025. However, this still depends on many factors, first and foremost the construction progress of the children’s hospice. We provide regular updates on the current status of the work under “Project status”.
What is the difference between
an adult hospice and a children’s hospice?
A children’s hospice specialises in caring for children. But that is not the only fundamental difference. The aim of a children’s hospice is to offer sick children and their families a place of retreat for relief and recuperation. The time between the diagnosis and the death of sick children is often several years long. During this time, they and their families can repeatedly take time out at the children’s hospice. They can decide independently how and where to spend their end-of-life phase. Only a few sick children who stay in a children’s hospice also die there. Adult hospices have a much stronger focus on this end-of-life phase and thus enable a dignified farewell with as little suffering as possible.
Why is the children’s hospice being built from scratch
and not using an existing institution?
A children’s hospice must be specially designed to meet the requirements of paediatric palliative care. These are very different from nursing homes and hospitals. Using an existing institution would involve major remodelling work and would limit the optimal design. This would also result in additional costs and a loss of quality in operation.
Isn’t it a sad place, a children’s hospice like this?
No, quite the opposite. Our aim is to give the sick children and their families back a bit of quality of life. Despite the difficult situations, the joy of life should take centre stage at the children’s hospice. Support is provided for thoughts about death and death itself which will help to make the burden more bearable.
What does the Flamingo animal world stand for?
The animals come together to represent the people’s different needs and services to the children’s hospice. They also represent our values: comprehensive, relieving, and unique.
Are children’s hospices places to die?
Yes, children are allowed to die in children’s hospices. In the presence of her family, in a quiet environment, with professional palliative care. The children’s hospices are also there for the families after the child’s death. Death and grief are accepted as part of life. At the same time, children’s hospices are above all places in life. Families of children with a life-limiting illness often have a long journey. Sometimes it takes many years. In a children’s hospice, they receive the support and relief they need. The aim of the care is to achieve the best possible quality of life for the whole family.
Do children’s hospices increase healthcare costs?
This cannot be assumed. Children with a life-limiting illness need care anyway, with children’s hospices the costs are merely shifted. Care in a children’s hospice is less cost-intensive than in hospitals. On the one hand, the hospice relieves the parents and accompanies and cares for the siblings, so that the children can be cared for at home for longer at low cost. Hospitalisation and follow-up costs due to overwork are reduced. This kind of relief is a great preventative measure for the family concerned. Compared to other patient groups, the number of seriously ill children is relatively low. However, this should not be a reason for politicians to forget them. Families are very much dependent on more help.