House for Julie

Lounge, kitchen, dining room, therapy pool, sensory playroom, cinema, art workshop, art therapy and music therapy rooms. All this will soon be offered by the first children’s hospice in the Czech Republic, which is being built in the Kociánka locality in the Královo Pole district of Brno. The House for Julie will become a unique children’s hospice, a medical and social facility offering help to terminally ill children and their families.

The building will contain ten rooms for children (two hospice beds and eight for the residential relief service) and quality facilities for parents and accompanying children. A team of specialists will take care of the paediatric patients. The services of psychologists, therapists and a spiritual minister will also be available to help young patients and the whole family cope with a terminal diagnosis. The hospice will also include a garden, a playground for children and facilities for administration. The whole house will function as a pension and partly as a school and nursery.

The story of the first children’s hospice in the Czech Republic is connected with the fate of Julinka, who died of a pneumococcal infection at the age of seven months. Neither she nor her parents were lucky enough to receive palliative care of sufficient quality. The house that will bear her name will enable parents to be close to their sick children even in difficult moments. All this in a modern facility surrounded by a mature garden, which will fully replace the sterile hospital environment. The project was inspired by examples from abroad, where similar hospices have been operating for a long time.

The House for Julia will become part of the Centre for Integrated Social Services. A home for the elderly already operates in the Kociánka locality, which will be expanded according to the plans of the City of Brno. In addition to a children’s hospice and a facility for the elderly, the centre will also include a nursing home and a facility for young clients with autism spectrum disorder. The area, which is currently fenced off, will be opened up so that its green areas and walking trails can be used by the public. Clients in need of care will not be cut off from the outside world. On the contrary, the project aims to remove barriers and promote intergenerational coexistence.

The construction of the House for Julie began in 2022 and the first patients will be able to use it in 2024. The ITI tool supported the construction of the hospice with CZK 87 million. The total project budget is CZK 160 million.