Palliative Care for Children with Cancer and Their Families

Abstract

This chapter discusses palliative care for children with cancer and their families. Palliative care for children with cancer and their families involves an integrated interdisciplinary approach throughout the illness course. Pediatric palliative care uses psychosocial approaches to facilitate communication and advance care planning, holistic approaches to ease symptom distress and enhance well-being and quality of life in children and their families, and support anticipatory grief and bereavement. Such care is provided by the primary psychosocial oncology team from the time of diagnosis of cancer. As cancer advances or circumstances become more complex, children, families, and primary oncology clinicians may also benefit from the added support of a pediatric palliative care service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)