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Obertshausen (sit) Outpatient child and youth hospice service in the city and district of Offenbach – this is an offer from the Maltese. However, the subject is so sensitive that many parents or other relatives of seriously and terminally ill children are very hesitant to open up to this offer. Understandable – one often thinks of the last days of a person’s life when one thinks about hospice service. Who would like to imagine this in relation to their own child?
“It’s not just about the last lifetime of a child when we accompany families,” explains Alexander Rudolf, who is in charge of coordinating the hospice service. Rather, families with incurably ill children can receive a wide range of help from the Maltese. In the city and district of Offenbach, full-time and qualified volunteer employees provide information, advice and support on site. Claudia Bauer-Herzog and Sabine Wollmer are part of the coordination team and they have their office in the family center in Heusenstamm. “The support can last for a long time,” says Alexander Rudolf, “sometimes from the time a diagnosis is made.” It is not just about providing relief for the parents of a terminally ill child, but also offering support with regard to siblings . A helper at home with the sick child can easily make sure that the sibling can go to gymnastics or another club or simply go out for an activity with mom or dad.
The first steps in the children’s hospice service at the Maltese took place in 2008. Rudolf has been with us since 2013 and the service has been structurally rebuilt. The work requires very special know-how; the service is networked with doctors, clinics, daycare centers, schools and social services. Around 250 children and young people in the city and district of Offenbach have life-shortening illnesses. Including all incurable clinical pictures that one can only imagine: Cancer diseases as well as genetic defects, very rare syndromes or severe disabilities caused by incidents during childbirth. “We definitely don’t want to put aside the hopes of parents,” the Maltese explains. Rather, it should be helped over the years that these children are integrated into society. And the offer is also aimed at children or young people whose father or mother will die. “We just want to convey that our service can also be used differently than it is perhaps through its name in consciousness.”
Malteser Hilfsdienst currently supports and advises five families with sick children or sick parents as well as three families with grieving children. It simply takes some effort to accept the help – even though it is free of charge and regardless of nationality or religious affiliation.
Alexander Rudolf wants to make the Malteser’s comprehensive escort service better known in order to help as many affected families as possible. In order to make the offer known, the Maltese have initiated an “encounter run” – on the one hand, so that the citizens support the child and youth hospice service financially, but above all, to raise people’s awareness. Some stations have already been moved, the last stage will follow next week, which will end in Dietzenbach and will conclude with a performance by t-Raum in the Capitol: Oscar and the Lady in Pink ”. The play is about a terminally ill boy who wants to know the truth about his condition and who fantasizes and speaks openly with the lady in pink about dying and everything else. This can be experienced on November 4th.
Information about this and about the child and youth hospice service itself is available at Tel. 06104/669 58 10 or www.malteser-offenbach.de.
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