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Lecture series “Children's Rights in the Health Care System” starts March 6.

The lecture series focuses on child rights regulations and questions that arise from them in everyday medical practice
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(Vienna, 21-02-2023) The rights of children and their perspectives and experiences are increasingly coming into focus. However, to date, there are no specific regulations for the application of Children's Rights in the Health Care System in Austria. Regulations and issues arising from them in everyday medical practice will be the focus of the interdisciplinary lecture series "Children's Rights in the Health Care System" from 6 March 2023. The lecture series was initiated by Ernst Berger, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vienna General Hospital and MedUni Vienna, and will be held in the summer semester of 2023 at the Medical University of Vienna. The lecture series aims to reach students from various disciplines (medicine, law, nursing) as well as guest students from the healthcare sector.

Internationally, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 is the human rights instrument with the most member states. In Austria, too, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with the Federal Constitutional Law on the Rights of Children, form the legal basis for children's rights. Both stipulate the right to adequate participation, an article that is particularly relevant in the health sector. However, the participation of children is currently neither implemented in hospitals nor in surgeries. "There are positive developments in the issue that children and adolescents are increasingly involved in decisions about treatment and that more attention is paid to the child-friendly communication of information about their own state of health, treatments and therapies, as well as to preparing them for medical examinations and interventions in therapeutic play. Nevertheless, it is often still argued about with narrow time structures, especially in acute medicine, when consent to examinations and therapies is only obtained from the parents, but not from the young patients as well*. The danger of regarding children's wills as negligible is particularly great under the pressure of the necessities of medical routines," describes Ernst Berger from the University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital and organiser of the interdisciplinary lecture series.

It is particularly important to observe children's rights in child and adolescent psychiatry, as the Accommodation Act allows patients to be admitted to a psychiatric ward even against their will. Dealing with this far-reaching competence requires a particularly high degree of sensitivity to children's rights. In Austria, however, there are no specific regulations for the application of children's rights in the field of health care. A discussion in the framework of the Children's Rights Board, an advisory board in the Federal Chancellery, made it clear that knowledge about children's rights must be expanded, says Berger.

The University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vienna General Hospital and MedUni Vienna has therefore created the interdisciplinary lecture series " Children's Rights in the Health Care System " as a way for interested parties to obtain comprehensive information about the legal basis and provisions relating to children in health care and to discuss issues that arise in everyday medical practice when treating children and adolescents with experts from various fields. The aim of the lecture series is to ensure that health professionals who work with children, such as doctors, nurses and therapists, know the legal framework in order to be able to communicate with children in everyday life. But the lecture series also aims to reach other professional groups, such as lawyers, who will be responsible for interpreting legal norms and sanctioning violations in their future careers.

Topics, dates and registration
The interdisciplinary lecture series starts on 6 March 2023 at the Medical University of Vienna. On a total of six dates, experts will deal with legal principles, the dialogue process of the doctor-patient relationship and triangulation with parents, the right to a say and participation in the context of health, official child protection and health, the child's perspective on acts of care as well as specific situations in the hospital and the surgery. Participation is possible for students of various disciplines as well as for guest students after registration. Participants have the opportunity to ask questions at all times.

Further information (in German)