Why is it important to focus on pediatric palliative care?
While there is an ongoing national effort to improve palliative care for adults, very little has been done so far for children. There is ample evidence that too many children, whether terminally ill or not, suffer needlessly from unrelieved pain and other symptoms, that families are stressed without adequate supports, and that health care professional education has not adequately addressed the knowledge, attitude and skills that clinicians need to meet child and family physical and psychosocial needs.
