Evaluation of MOMO - Vienna's mobile children's hospice and palliative care team

The Competence Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Social Entrepreneurship was commissioned by the shareholders of "Vienna's mobile children's hospice and children's palliative team MOMO - Wiener Kinderhospiz gGmbH", Caritas, Caritas Socialis as well as MOKI Mobile Kinderkrankenpflege Wien to conduct an evaluation of MOMO's activities. The aim of the study was to show the social added value of the services provided by MOMO, both for the overall system of pediatric hospice and palliative care in Vienna and stakeholder-specific. This was done by first developing a hypothetical impact model for MOMO. Based on the individual impact chains established in the impact model, the extent to which the stakeholders involved benefit from the activities of MOMO was shown.
The foundation of "Vienna's mobile children's hospice and palliative care team MOMO - Wiener Kinderhospiz gGmbH" was a joint initiative of Caritas, Caritas Socialis and MOKI-Vienna in 2013 with the aim of meeting the need for hospice and palliative care for children and adolescents in the greater Vienna area. In the first seven years of its activities, the multi-professional and interdisciplinary MOMO team has cared for and accompanied more than 300 patients* with life-threatening or life-shortening diseases and their families. MOMO is characterized by an extensive and diverse service portfolio. The range of services is tailored to the individual needs of the patients and their families and includes medical and nursing care, psychosocial and pastoral care at home, therapeutic measures and voluntary everyday care. The MOMO team works together with numerous private and public cooperation partners from the system of pediatric hospice and palliative care in Vienna as well as with external cooperation partners such as authorities or organizations that offer support services. Thus MOMO, in cooperation with other service providers, ensures extensive support for families with seriously ill children and adolescents.
The aim of the present study was to show the social added value of the services provided by MOMO, on the one hand for the overall system of pediatric hospice and palliative care in Vienna and on the other hand for specific target groups.
Among the main beneficiaries are the patients themselves as well as their parents, siblings and other family members. Through MOMO, home care is made possible, which is a considerable relief for the families. At the same time, it is a framework condition that has a number of other effects. The work of MOMO relieves the families of the burden in terms of time and organization as well as psychologically and emotionally. By being able to stay at home, the families experience a certain degree of normality in everyday life, which is otherwise not the case with extensive hospital stays, from which the entire family suffers. The intensive professional support provided by MOMO and the strong presence in the family gives parents and children a feeling of security that the patients* are also medically cared for at home as in hospital.
The cooperation partners are also important profiteers of MOMO. On the one hand, the cooperation makes their work easier and saves them time, on the other hand they benefit from the networking and cooperation with other system actors. A further effect was also mentioned by the cooperation partners as an increased feeling of security. Through its strong presence in the families, the MOMO team gains a comprehensive insight into the cases being cared for and shares this knowledge with cooperation partners in order to ensure good care together. The treatment of MOMO patients is often not routine work for the individual system actors, which is why the possibility of exchanging information with the MOMO team is important.
Other stakeholder groups that benefit from MOMO's activities are MOMO's full-time and volunteer employees, donors, representatives of the public sector such as social insurance carriers, the Vienna Social Fund (FSW) and the umbrella organization of Viennese social institutions, as well as MOMO itself.
MOMO plays an important mediating and supporting role in the overall system of providers of services for seriously ill children and young people and their families, which is largely due to the holistic care and support concept that MOMO pursues. This includes medical, nursing, therapeutic and psychosocial care, support by social workers and the everyday care of the families, including school matters and leisure activities for the patients and their families. To a certain extent, MOMO offers these services itself. In addition, it has built up an extensive network of specialized service providers that can be called upon when needed. MOMO acts on the one hand as a mediating partner and often ensures that the services are provided very quickly and unbureaucratically. MOMO's holistic care concept provides it with a very comprehensive know-how of what families might need in these situations and what support options are available. This one-stop approach is immensely important for the families, as they are very often overwhelmed by the situation and cannot do research themselves. MOMO not only mediates, it is also available as an exchange partner for other service providers. MOMO regularly exchanges information with many cooperation partners so that patients and their families can receive the best possible care. The cooperation between different professional groups contributes to an increased feeling of security among the cooperation partners, for whom the care of seriously ill children is sometimes not an everyday occurrence or who do not know the individual situation of the patients and their families as well as the MOMO employees, who are in regular contact with the families, care for them at home and exchange information regularly as a team.
By communication and information exchange with all substantial system partners MOMO contributes crucially to the fact that the system is altogether more effective and more efficient. The families report that they save a lot of time and effort by avoiding or shortening visits to the doctor and hospital stays, accompanying them when dealing with authorities, etc. The cooperation partners report that they are better informed and feel more secure through the cooperation with MOMO. Important for this is the shared knowledge and trust that has been created through networking and cooperation. This results in a high degree of flexibility and adaptability in the care of the patients while at the same time saving resources.
In general, no negative effects could be deduced which could be directly attributed to the work of MOMO. Only the strong stigmatization of the palliative and hospice concept and the high inhibition threshold with regard to children were mentioned. In the opinion of the interviewees, this obstacle would prevent MOMO from reaching as many families as is actually necessary and would enable them to benefit enormously from MOMO's services. Here, a change of attitude in society must be more strongly encouraged, which would facilitate the participation of seriously ill children in society.
In many cases, an expansion and/or intensification of MOMO's services was latently or directly desired. However, understanding was shown that this is not possible without problems due to limited resources.
In summary, it can be said that the work of MOMO generates added value in many ways, both for the individual stakeholder groups and for the overall system of pediatric hospice and palliative care in Vienna. On the one hand, this indicates the high significance of MOMO in the overall system and within the network of system partners* and, at the same time, the necessity for the range of services offered by MOMO.