title: Partnerships between pediatric palliative care and psychiatry.
abstract: Children with life-threatening illnesses and their families may face physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual challenges throughout the children's course of illness. Pediatric palliative care is designed to meet such challenges. Given the psychosocial and emotional needs of children and their families it is clear that psychiatrists can, and do, play a role in delivering pediatric palliative care. In this article the partnership between pediatric palliative care and psychiatry is explored. The authors present an overview of pediatric palliative care followed by a summary of some of the roles for psychiatry. Two innovative pediatric palliative care programs that psychiatrists may or may not be aware of are described. Finally, some challenges that are faced in further developing this partnership and suggestions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. capricegaring@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Caprice
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Knapp
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Button
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hastie
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001601:Bereavement; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D011584:Psychology; D012801:Sibling Relations