Pediatric palliative and hospice care focuses on enhancing quality of life for the child and family, preventing and minimizing suffering, optimizing function, and providing opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. This care can be provided concurrently with life-prolonging care, curative care, or as the main focus of care.

Pediatric care includes perinatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. Children refers to patients in the perinatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Young adulthood encompasses individuals over 18 years of age.

What is pediatric palliative care?

Specialty pediatric palliative care is interdisciplinary, patient- and family-centered care that supports the physical, emotional, and spiritual well being of children with serious illness.

PPC targets the prevention and relief of suffering in each of these domains and elicits patient hopes and values to ensure goal concordant medical care at all stages of illness.

NHPCO supports the field of pediatric palliative and hospice care and, therefore, most pediatric resources are free to the public. However, some resources will require an NHPCO membership or will request additional information to access.

If you have questions about NHPCO’s pediatric resources, contact pediatrics@nhpco.org.

In This Section
Brochures for Families

Resources in English & Spanish to discuss serious illness with children.

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Pediatric Concurrent Care

Concurrent care is utilizing both curative, life prolonging treatment with hospice services for children under the age of 21 who qualify.

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Pediatric e-Journal

The world’s longest consistent pediatric palliative and hospice care publication.

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Pediatrics Professional Resources

Resources for providers offering pediatric palliative and hospice care services.

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History of ChiPPS

NHPCO pediatric work began as Children’s Project on Palliative/Hospice Services and has provided resources for over two decades.

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Pediatrics Regulatory

Pediatric care must follow guidance and rules from Medicaid program, Children Health Insurance Programs (CHIP), and other Federal legislation and regulations.

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