The interdisciplinary Palliative Care Team at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach is committed to providing comprehensive care for patients and families living with life-limiting or life-threatening illness, particularly where care is focused on promoting dignity, advocating and supporting informed decision-making, alleviating suffering, and improving quality of life.

What is Pediatric Palliative Care?

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.

  • Palliative care is provided by a specially trained team of doctors, nurses, and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support.
  • Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis.
  • This care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and can be provided along with curative treatment.

Our Services

  • Our team supports your family as you talk through your fears, goals, hopes and wishes, thus determining how best to meet your needs on your terms.
  • We provide specialized pain and symptom control.
  • We provide support and guidance when you begin to have questions about how to best care for your child.
  • We work together with your child’s health care providers and promote a focus on communicating with one another to support your goals.
  • Our support can begin at your child’s diagnosis and continue, with or without curative treatment, for as long as it benefits your child and your family.
  • We connect you with outpatient palliative care resources as needed.

Why has your doctor recommended you talk with the Palliative Care team?

  • To help address significant threats to health and comfort across physical, social, spiritual and emotional domains.
  • To help promote shared decision making when your child’s future looks uncertain.
  • To help promote hope, healing, and comfort.
  • To help with anticipatory guidance.

Our Commitment to You:

  • We will be honest with you.
  • We will pause and listen to you.
  • We will treat your child with dignity.
  • We will support you in helping your child live as comfortably and fully as possible with their condition.
  • We will listen to your family’s values and help you think about what quality of life means for your child.
  • We will support you through challenges and transitions brought on by your child’s illness, without ever giving up hope.

Contact our Palliative Care Program at (562) 933-0613.