Palliative Care FAQs

If I’m interested in palliative care, whom do I contact?
Talk to your doctors if you want to meet the Comfort and Palliative Care Team. Your doctor can contact us and we will meet you as soon as possible.

What is “palliative care”?
The word “palliative” means to “relieve symptoms.” Palliative care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles offers physical, emotional, physical and spiritual support to children, teens and their families.

What does the Palliative Care Team do?
The Comfort and Palliative Care Team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles:

• Treats physical problems in patients, such as pain or sleep difficulties, as well as emotional problems like fear, depression or anxiety.
• Meets with families to talk about goals, worries and hopes.
• Provides extra support to families facing difficult decisions about their child’s treatment.
• Helps to bring together different caregivers and teams caring for a child with a complicated illness to talk together with families about treatment goals and plans.
• Sees the patient on a consistent basis in the hospital and works with your doctor to provide the best possible care during the hospital stay.

If my doctor refers us to Palliative Care, does that mean my child is dying?
No. There are many reasons doctors ask for the Palliative Care team to become involved with families at our hospital, including:

• When a patient has just been diagnosed with an illness.
• When something changes during an illness, causing patients and families to face difficult decisions about treatments or care.
• When medical treatments cannot cure an illness, but treatment that offers care and support will continue.

Who is on a Palliative Care team?
The Comfort and Palliative Care Team at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles currently includes a doctor, a nurse practitioner, a clinical psychologist and a social worker.

If we accept palliative care, does that mean we don’t work with our regular doctors anymore?
Your child’s doctors will remain fully in charge of your child’s medical care. The Palliative Care team will work with your doctors to provide additional, supportive care.

If we agree to palliative care, may we change our mind later and stop palliative care?
Yes. Our Palliative Care Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is designed to help the child and family. If your family does not believe the care is needed or helpful, you can inform a member of the team or one of your child’s doctors that you’ve changed your mind.

Does the team see us only when we are in the hospital?
No. We follow up with families in our outpatient clinics to provide care for pain and related issues. We also sometimes check in with families during their clinic visits with their regular doctors, or we make phone calls to make sure everything is going alright at home. If there are any problems at home, we make ourselves available to assist with solving these problems.

How long will the team work with us?
This depends on the needs of each patient and family.

• The team may work with a patient for months, for very long hospitalizations.
• The team may follow up with patients in the outpatient setting if needed, with phone calls, clinic visits or emails.
• The team may just be available on an “as-needed” basis after discharge, if there are no major concerns related to palliative care.
• If a patient goes home with hospice support, the team will continue to communicate with the hospice service to make sure needs are being met. After a death, we continue to offer support to parents and siblings for up to 18 months.

Is palliative care the same thing as hospice?
People often think of the word hospice when they hear “palliative care,” but they are different. Hospice is a specific service for care at the end of life. But palliative care is more than hospice. Palliative care can be part of the beginning, middle or end of an illness or treatment.

What is hospice?
Hospice care can help children die while at home instead of in a hospital setting. When the family prefers to be at home during this time, the Palliative Care Team can help the family find a hospice service.

What happens if my child dies?
The Comfort and Palliative Care Team may help the family with funeral planning, help to communicate with the medical team after a death, and may help parents and siblings with dealing with work and/or school after a death. The team’s social worker offers follow-up support to parents and siblings for at least a year and a half after the child dies. This can include phone calls and home visits as desired by the family, as well as help finding resources in the community for grief support.

Is it common for hospitals to have palliative care teams?
Yes, many hospitals across the country have such teams. Palliative care can improve overall care in a hospital, and the satisfaction of families with their care.