National Hospice and Palliative Care Month is dedicated to raising awareness about hospice and palliative care — essential services that improve the quality of life for patients with life-limiting illnesses. We honor and thank this team for the supportive and compassionate care it provides. Melanie Brown, medical director of pediatric palliative care at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center reflects on this observance and shares insight about the goals of the Johns Hopkins pediatric palliative care program: “Hospice and palliative care for children may be very different from what we see in adults...Our team serves as a navigator for the families of children with serious illness, ensuring that each day is as good as it can be as defined by the family and the child. The goal is to support the patient’s goals and the patient’s values. This is what we strive for. Sometimes, this can mean avoiding a treatment that the medical team recommends if it is not in the patient’s goals, and it can also mean accepting a treatment that is in the patient’s goals if the benefit outweighs the risk. As a palliative medicine team, we work with the patient and family to focus on the best quality of life — whatever that means for them. Our team is comprised of several disciplines that represent what is important to patients and families. We have people that can help with spiritual, emotional and physical symptoms and medical decision making. Team members include physicians, nurse practitioners, a nurse, chaplains and a child life specialist. We work closely with patients’ primary care doctors and local hospice organizations to ensure that everyone has equal access to high quality care. We also have a robust training program where we train fellows, residents and medical students so that equal access to high quality care continues. These trainees will take what they have learned to serve wherever they decide to practice in the future. We have the best patients and a great team. Everyone here is so dedicated to the patients and the work we do.” #HAPCM #KidsHealth
