There's No Place Like Home: Creating a Successful Model for Community Based Pediatric Palliative and Hospice Care (TH365)

Abstract

•Identify both the need for and barriers to providing community based pediatric palliative care.•Recognize the necessity of successful collaboration between inpatient and home based pediatric palliative care programs.•Identify the role Concurrent Care plays in pediatric palliative and hospice care and the variability between states. Over the past 30 years there has been significant advancement in palliative care, however there continues to be a gap in pediatric services in both inpatient and community based settings. There are numerous reasons for this gap including funding support, complexity of Concurrent Care, the definition of and eligibility for palliative care services, and the difficulty separating out palliative from hospice care. While there is not nearly the volume of research in pediatric palliative care as there is in adult palliative care, the research that has been done strongly supports the use of pediatric palliative care, demonstrating its benefit in both the active care of patients as well as during the bereavement process for parents whose child dies. Despite this strong evidence, pediatric palliative care continues to be significantly underutilized. This session will focus specifically on pediatric palliative care in the home. We will present an interdisciplinary model of community-based palliative and hospice care featuring four pathways of support. The rationale for each pathway will be discussed as well as the successes and challenges, necessity of collaboration with outside hospitals, and feasibility of replication. Funding support will also be reviewed, including a look at the Concurrent Care Waiver and its implications on both a local and national level. The session will end with case examples of the care provided in the different pathways, with time for a brief question and answer session.