Palliative Care

For a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, palliative care provides complete physical, emotional, social and spiritual support. Palliative care enables children and families to reach for hope in their day-to-day lives.

The Palliative Care team at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford is committed to helping patients achieve the best quality of life possible. We understand that “quality of life” means different things to different people, so we work with parents individually, and tailor care to the unique needs of each family.

Reaching for Hope by Grace Lim, 1992-2004
Assisi Children's Centre, Singapore

Collaborative Planning

We work with the child’s primary care team to assist families in decision making and in developing a comprehensive plan for comfort care. We also partner with community agencies to ease the transitions between hospital, hospice and home. Together we work to ensure that each child receives optimal care in all settings.

Comprehensive Care

The Palliative Care team provides support under many circumstances, in many styles and for many reasons. The team is available to:

• Manage distressing symptoms, both physical and emotional
• Facilitate communication between and among children, families and health care providers
• Consult on the care of healthy siblings
• Plan for present and future choices and decisions in children’s care
• Help children and families transition to palliative care
• Provide consultation for individual health care providers and teams
• Advise families and staff about bereavement resources as appropriate