ACT recognises that it is uncommon for GPs, on an individual basis, to deal with families who have a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. This handbook has been designed as a practical and emotional guide to support GPs when they face the challenge of caring for a child with palliative care needs, to guide them through the pathway approach to planning and delivering care, and to signpost them to more detailed resources should they be required.

This new resource addresses the main questions GPs are likely to ask when caring for a life-limited or life-threatened child, and breaks down what can sometimes seem like an overwhelming task into manageable sections for them to refer to as and when each issue arises in practice.

The Children’s Palliative Care Handbook for GPs is a fully interactive PDF with 13 sections ranging from handling strong emotions and difficult questions; assessing pain; spiritual care; management of terminal symptoms; and helping the family with grief and bereavement.

Through this handbook, ACT hopes to give GPs the confidence they need to face the challenges of working with life-limited and life-threatened children, and encourage them to play a bigger part in children’s palliative care, by making them aware of the specialist support available that can help them along the way.

The ACT Children’s Palliative Care Handbook for GPs is available free to download at www.act.org.uk/gps

ACT is encouraging other professionals who work with life-limited and life-threatened children less frequently to download this resource, as much of it is relevant in various care contexts.

Lizzie Chambers, ACT Chief Executive said, “It has long been recognised that GPs often have very limited involvement in the care of life-limited children and their families and that this need not be the case. In fact, GPs are ideally placed to support children and families throughout their illness and to be a valuable member of the care team at the time of the child’s death, and in providing ongoing support for the family in bereavement. This handbook  provides a really practical way to empower GPs to be involved in the care of life-limited children. We hope this will lead to less fragmented care for families during such a difficult time.”