Children with life limiting conditions and their families have complex needs. Evaluations must consider their views and perspectives to ensure care is relevant, appropriate and acceptable. We consulted with children, young people, their parents and…
Portugal has been identified as the European country with the most rapid evolution of Pediatric Palliative Care provision, where approximately 7800 children have life-limiting conditions. This is a highly complex experience not only for the children…
PURPOSE Adolescents and young adults (AYAs; age 15-39 years) with advanced cancer are a population in whom quality of life is uniquely affected because of their stage of life. However, training focused on palliative care for AYAs is not routinely…
In Europe, Portugal has been identified as the country with the most rapid evolution of paediatric palliative care provision, which is a highly complex experience for families. The present descriptive-exploratory study seeks to contribute to the…
Despite a great deal of effort and many articles addressing the end-of-life care of children and adults in intensive care units,1 2 paediatricians continue to be confronted by parents wanting “everything done”. Such an appeal is often construed by…
The loss of a close friend or relative is always an ordeal. When this loved one is a baby, born or even unborn, a number of specific aspects have been reported by parents and researchers. The specificities of perinatal mourning have been…
Objectives: In the modern pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) physicians are often faced with the need to interrupt life-sustaining treatment (LST) and to allow children to die when no further treatment options are available. Consequently, the…
BACKGROUND: There is growing awareness that different terminal diseases translate into different family caregiver experiences, and the palliative and supportive care needs of these families are both similar and unique. Family members caring for…
The article presents a rationale for and components of a developmental systems model to guide early intervention programs for vulnerable children and their families. Core principles emphasizing a developmental framework, integration, and inclusion,…
To test the feasibility, acceptability and safety of a pediatric advance care planning intervention, Family-Centered Advance Care Planning for Teens With Cancer (FACE-TC).
METHODS:
Adolescent (age 14-20 years)/family dyads (N = 30) with a cancer…
A reliable and valid measure of the quality of the dying experience would help clinicians and researchers improve care for dying patients. To describe the validity of an instrument assessing the quality of dying and death using the perspective of…
Background: Chronic non-cancer pain in childhood is widespread, affecting 20% to 35% of children and young people worldwide. For a sizeable number of children, chronic non-cancer pain has considerable negative impacts on their lives and quality of…
This is the account of a mother who lived through the 5-year experience of watching her child fight and finally succumb to a genetic disorder. Lessons about caring practices and insights into the needs of patients and families are emphasized.
OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence of screening criteria for acute and posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) and stress symptoms among family members of children in the PICU for more than 8 days and examine risk factors for stress symptoms.…
Objective To evaluate current attitudes and barriers to advance care planning for adolescent patients with life-threatening conditions among paediatric neurologists. Design Cross-sectional study. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to…
This article highlights key findings from the "Comprehensive Cancer Care for Children and Their Families" March 2015 joint workshop by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Cancer Society. This initiative convened more than 100 family…
Purpose: Pediatric palliative care is a rapidly developing multidisciplinary approach that supports children with life-limiting conditions and their families. However, there is limited evidence on how to effectively support bereaved parents and…
Context The stage theory of grief remains a widely accepted model of bereavement adjustment still taught in medical schools, espoused by physicians, and applied in diverse contexts. Nevertheless, the stage theory of grief has previously not been…
BACKGROUND: Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal disorder caused by mutations in the arylsulfatase A gene. Until now, there has been little information on the burden of MLD on patients and their caregivers. This…
IMPORTANCE: Lack of pediatric end-of-life care quality indicators and challenges ascertaining family perspectives make staff perceptions valuable. Cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) interdisciplinary staff play an integral role supporting children…
The article presents a discussion between bereaved parents on the Quality of Life Steering Council at a large academic pediatric cancer center and interdisciplinary pediatric palliative care clinicians about the coexistence of hope and realism.…
In North America, parents are not expected to outlive their child. When they do, neighbours, co-workers, friends and family do not know what to say or do resulting in parents feeling isolated in their grief and left alone to find the support they…
Background: Alternative locations for children near end of life (EOL) are lacking in the United States with deaths largely occurring within intensive care units (ICUs). The reflection room (RR) was implemented as a relevant space for providing this…
Lived experiences of childhood cancer patients and their families have been described as interrupted and as a loss of normal life. Apart from symptoms due to the cancer disease, families continuously experience burden of treatment. Since coping…
Approximately 25% of children with cancer die of their disease. Early in the course of a patient's illness, it is often impossible to determine whether the disease will be cured with cancer-directed treatment. When potentially curative therapy is no…
Background Palliative care for children is an innovative approach that helps improve the quality of life of children suffering from life-limiting illnesses, and their family members. The WHO recognized palliative care as a part of universal health…
CONTEXT: In order to dramatically advance the evidence base for pediatric palliative care (PPC) interventions, practices, and programs in the United States and similar practice settings, the field needs to better understand the challenges and…
Objective: Symptom burden of children with cancer appears to contribute to parent distress, but the mechanisms of this relationship are relatively unexplored. The current cross-sectional study examined rumination (i.e., repeated focus on negative…
This paper reviews some of the recent empirical studies validating the Circumplex Model and describes the newly developed self-report measure, FACES III. Studies testing hypotheses derived from the Circumplex Model regarding the three dimensions of…
BACKGROUND: Families and professionals caring for children with life-limiting conditions face difficult healthcare decisions. Shared decision-making is promoted in many countries, however little is known about factors influencing these processes.…
Background: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Pediatric Palliative Care Network (PPCN) provides Community-Based Pediatric Palliative Care (CBPPC) to children with life-limiting conditions and their families. CBPPC services aim to…
BACKGROUND: The interest in outcome measurement in pediatric palliative care is rising. To date, the majority of studies investigating relevant outcomes of pediatric palliative care focus on children with cancer. Insight is lacking, however, about…
BACKGROUND: Families who learn that their unborn baby has a life-limiting fetal condition are often overwhelmed by this news, alongside navigating an unfamiliar healthcare system. A skilled perinatal palliative care coordinator (PPCC) can help these…
OBJECTIVE: The growing shift toward home care services assumes that "being home is good" and that this is the most desirable option. Although ethical issues in medical decision-making have been examined in numerous contexts, home care decisions for…
Twenty-four families who had participated in a Home Care Program for children terminally ill with cancer and 13 families of similar children who had died in the hospital completed inventories on parent and sibling personality as well as family…
