title: Pediatric palliative care.
abstract: Progress in pediatric palliative care has gained momentum, but there remain significant barriers to the appropriate provision of palliative care to ill and dying children, including the lack of properly trained health care professionals, resources to finance such care, and scientific research, as well as a continued cultural denial of death in children. This article reviews the epidemiology of pediatric palliative care, special communication concerns, decision making, ethical and legal considerations, symptom assessment and management, psychosocial issues, provision of care across settings, end-of-life care, and bereavement. Educational and supportive resources for health care practitioners and families, respectively, are included.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Children's Hospital at Montefiore, 3415 Bainbridge Avenue, 111 East 210th Street, Rosenthal 3, Bronx, NY 10463, USA. kmoody@montefiore.org
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moody
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Siegel
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Scharbach
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Rabbi Mollie
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cantor
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000458:organization & administration; D001601:Bereavement; D003142:Communication; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology