Publication
From the C-Suite to the Living Room Couch: Making the Case for Home-Based Pediatric Palliative Care
Lastrapes K, Bell L, King Q, Spilman C, Frenchman E · Journal of Pain and Symptom Management · 2026
There is growing evidence of the positive impact that specialized pediatric palliative care can have on children with serious medical illnesses, including (but not limited to) increased quality of life, improved symptom burden, increased completion of advance care planning, and decreased end-of-life intensive care stays (1, 2). Less is known specifically about the benefits of home-based pediatric palliative care (3). While those who do the work daily can easily attest to the multifaceted benefits of providing quality upstream palliative care concurrently with disease-directed therapies in the home environment, there is a paucity of evidence in the literature regarding the specific benefits for this type of support (4,5). While stakeholder perception may alter what is considered the most compelling argument, unifying themes do exist. This interdisciplinary panel of individuals with expertise in different facets of home-based pediatric palliative care will identify and explore these unifying themes from an administrative, medical, philanthropic and parental perspective utilizing a current successful model. At the conclusion, the authors hope that growing programs will be able to take actionable information and strategies back to their home institutions to make the case for support of their home-based pediatric palliative care programs. While the ability to be malleable and change our structure and support to meet the unique needs of different patients and families is hallmark to our profession, a generalized framework to making the case for this specialized type of support will help streamline effort in the setting of a limited workforce and resources.
Synced from the TRENDS in Pediatric Palliative Care Zotero library, curated by The Siden Research Team. ICPCN does not host or verify the full text.