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Adolescent Palliative Care
Support, Communication & the Transition Journey

Join PatchSA for an online webinar exploring adolescent palliative care, effective communication with young people, and the transition from paediatric to adult palliative care.

Adolescence is a complex stage of development, and for young people living with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, navigating illness, relationships, independence and changing healthcare needs can bring additional challenges. Providing appropriate adolescent palliative care requires healthcare professionals to understand these unique needs and communicate in ways that respect young people’s developing autonomy and preferences.

In this webinar, Tracy Brand, Medical Social Worker and Director of Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children, and Dr Jivanesh Chetty, MBBCh with postgraduate diplomas in HIV Management and Interdisciplinary Pain Management, will explore practical approaches to supporting and communicating with adolescents living with conditions appropriate for palliative care, including HIV.

The webinar will also examine the transition journey from childhood and paediatric services to adolescent and adult palliative care, highlighting ways healthcare professionals can support continuity of care and help young people and their families navigate this important change.

What will be covered?

• Understanding the unique palliative care needs of adolescents
• Supporting adolescents living with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions
• Effective and age-appropriate communication with young people
• Addressing the psychosocial and emotional needs of adolescents and their families
• Challenges associated with transitioning from paediatric to adult palliative care
• Practical approaches to improving continuity and coordination of care

Webinar details

Date: Wednesday, 19 August 2026
Time: 18h30 – 20h00 (SAST)
Format: Online Zoom webinar
Presenters: Tracy Brand and Dr Jivanesh Chetty

Register here: https://bit.ly/3RNpepm

This webinar is relevant to healthcare professionals, palliative care practitioners, social workers, nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, educators and others involved in supporting adolescents with serious health conditions.

Beyond the Medicine:
The Role of Therapists in Children’s Palliative Care

Providing essential therapeutic care for children with palliative care needs

This 90-minute webinar focused on the important and supportive role of non-clinicians such as speech therapists, counsellors, child-life specialists as members of the multi-disciplinary team providing holistic palliative care to children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions and their family members.

The experienced and highly qualified presenters on this webinar are Loren Mirsky Piatkin, a Child Life Specialist and Certified Grief Counsellor and Tayla Oshrey, a Speech Therapist, Audiologist, and Lactation Specialist.

About the presenters

Loren Mirsky-Piatkin is a Certified Child Life Specialist and Certified Grief Counselor with over 15 years of experience supporting children, patients, and families through some of life’s most challenging moments. Loren is passionate about paediatric palliative care and is dedicated to providing compassionate, holistic support to families navigating serious illness, complex medical journeys, grief, and loss. Through both professional and volunteer work around the world, she specialises in grief support, memory-making, legacy building, sibling support, and advocacy, helping families find connection, meaning, and support throughout their journey.

Tayla Oshry is a Speech Therapist, Audiologist and Lactation Consultant who works at the General Justice Gizenga Mpanza Regional Hospital. She also owns a small practice in Ballito. Tayla has a special interest in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and dysphagia in palliative care and has been a speaker at the 2025 Palliative Care Conference and Critical Care Congress. When she’s not at the hospital, you can find her on the beach, traveling, or crocheting with her three cats.

Assets from the webinar

1. Presentation on Role of Child Life Specialist on the PPC Team  https://patchsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Child-Life-Role-on-a-Palliative-Care-Team-Webinar.pdf

Communicating Under Pressure:
Supporting children & families across care settings

Practical communication strategies for emergency & evolving situations

Presenters on this webinar are Dr Caleb Gage, BTEMC, MPhil EM, PhD EM Clinical Advisor – Proficien Programme Manager City of Johannesburg EMS and Prof Jan du Plessis, MBChB, MMed Paed Paediatric Oncologist Universitas Academic Hospital, Bloemfontein

This Zoom webinar has a focus on communicating well in times of urgency and uncertainty, with an emphasis on helping patients and families feel heard, understood, and actively involved in decision making, even when time is limited. The presenters explored how skilled and compassionate communication can support a sense of shared understanding and a ‘dynamic of control’, where patients and families remain partners in care as situations evolve.

Assets from the webinar

1. Presentation by Dr Caleb Gage https://patchsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Posture-of-Meaningful-Communication-Dr-Caleb-Gage.pdf
2. Presentation by Prof Jan du Plessis https://patchsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Communicating-under-pressure-Prof-Jan-duPlessis.pdf
3. Read the research paper The dynamic of control: A qualitative analysis of the perspectives of patients and family members with palliative care needs on Emergency Medical Services (authored by Caleb Gage, Liz Gwyther, and Willem Stassen) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/26323524251409346
4. An article on the paper can be found on this site at https://patchsa.org/new-south-african-research-on-ems-and-palliative-care/
5. 10 Golden Phrases to Use when a child may die https://patchsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Ten-golden-phrases-when-a-child-may-die-1.pdf
6. Take the Patch Academy Course: Communication in Children’s Palliative Care

Navigating access to pain & symptom management
for children with rare diseases

In this PatchSA webinar, Kelly du Plessis, CEO of Rare Diseases South Africa talks about the need for palliative care for children with rare diseases. Many rare diseases are life-limiting or life-threatening, and often cause complex physical, emotional, and social challenges for the child and family. Because of this, children with rare diseases frequently need palliative care — not only at the end of life, but from the time of diagnosis and throughout the course of their illness. In South Africa and globally, rare diseases often lead to a palliative care need by default, because access to disease-specific treatment is limited and symptoms can be severe or progressive. Palliative care teams help fill this gap by ensuring comfort, dignity, and holistic care. The video also features a NF (Neurofibromatosis) warrior mom, Lebohang Leuta who speaks about the challenges of having to care for a child with a rare disease.

Seen & Unseen Suffering in Children’s Palliative Care

Assessing Physical & Spiritual Pain in Children’s Palliative Care

In this PatchSA webinar, held on 20 Aug 2025, Dr Michelle Meiring, founder of Paedspal, an expert on children’s pain, and convener of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Paediatric Palliative Care at the University of Cape Town and Sr Joan Marston, founder of Sunflower Children’s Hospice and global expert on and ambassador for palliative care for adults, children, and those in emergency and humanitarian situations, speak about the vital importance of thorough history taking and impeccable assessment of the physical and spiritual suffering of children with palliative care needs.

Download the presentations as PDFs

Assessing Seen and Unseen Physical Pain in Children – Dr Michelle Meiring
Assessing Spiritual Suffering in Children – Sr Joan Marston

Withholding & Withdrawing of Treatment in Perinatal Palliative Care

Withholding and withdrawing of treatment in perinatal palliative care

A webinar hosted by PatchSA on Wednesday 10 September 2025 in which Dr Julia Ambler, Medical Director of Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children, gives valuable insight into the ethics and decision-making process with regard to withholding and withdrawing treatment when a baby is receiving perinatal palliative care. Throughout the webinar she emphasises the need for open and honest communication, including deep listening, with the parents and with professional colleagues and talks about the need for being respectful when opinions may differ.