FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Mark Cohen, VP/Communications & Public Relations

Fort Lauderdale, January 5, 2005–While half of all adults nationally who die from a chronic or terminal condition receive at least some hospice services, only one in 10 of the more than 50,000 children who die each year in the United States receives the comfort and emotional support of hospice care.

To improve the quality of end-of-life care available to pediatric patients, VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Broward County has created a hospice care team dedicated exclusively to meeting the end-of-life care needs of children and their families. Over the past 10 years, VITAS has cared for more than 1,000 pediatric hospice patients nationwide, including more than 200 in South Florida.

VITAS’ Broward Pediatric Team provides care for patients from birth to 21 years with a range of medical problems, including cancer, heart disease, AIDS, lung disease, neurological disorders, congenital anomalies and neonatal disease. VITAS’ Intensive Palliative Care® is not intended to cure the patient’s underlying disease; it is instead aggressive treatment of physical and emotional pain and symptoms, with the focus on enhancing a child’s comfort and overall quality of life. “The VITAS pediatric team helps the patient and family balance reality with hope to help them feel that they are not giving up, but rather letting go,” explains Lynn Meister, MD, team physician for the Broward Pediatrics Team.

“We’re promoting the concept of pediatric palliative care,” explains Meister. As Team Physician, she consults with attending physicians, provides guidance to VITAS staff and volunteers and educates healthcare providers on the benefits of pediatric palliative care to patients and families. “The first goal is to cure if possible, and we want the VITAS team to step in when the child first becomes seriously ill, to help with treatment when cure is not feasible,” she says.

“At that time we can help with the end-of-life issues: psychosocial, spiritual, financial, physical. And those issues can be very different in a child than in an adult hospice patient. Even bereavement support,” Meister points out, “which is offered to families of adults for at least 12 months following a death, is unlimited following the death of a child.

Pediatric hospice care is generally delivered in the patient’s home by an interdisciplinary team, including:

• physicians, who work with the attending physician and are available for consultation or to make house calls, as needed
• nurses, pediatric-trained and skilled at managing symptoms like pain, vomiting, agitation and fever
• home health aides, who help the family with the child’s personal care
• social workers and chaplains, who provide support to the child and the family, working with the school and/or family clergy when appropriate
• volunteers, an extra pair of hands when families need respite; and,
• bereavement support, specially designed to help parents, grandparents and siblings meet daily challenges before and after a child has died.

For information on VITAS’ Broward Pediatrics Team call
1-800-93 VITAS.