First of all, what is palliative care? Child palliative care goes beyond sustaining life, it’s
the process of improving an ill child’s quality of life. Usually, people with serious
illnesses have a lot of treatments performed on them that can alter and limit their day-today lifestyles. Palliative care can help people find relief during or between treatments
with professional help. Palliative care isn’t only for the body, but it’s for the mind and
spirit as well. Palliative care can relieve stress for families raising children with unique
illnesses. Here are a few ways your donation can go towards saving a family.
Expenses Can Take A Toll
It’s hard for parents to watch their own children struggle. Sometimes they give up all they
can have to make sure their child is healthy. This can cause a huge financial burden.
According to HealthAffairs.org, “Children with any chronic condition incurred, on
average, $3,361 (95% confidence interval: $2,811, $3,918) in annual health care
expenditures.
Prescription drugs (29 percent), inpatient hospitalization (20 percent), and professional
services (20 percent) were the largest expenditure categories.” These costs add up. Some
families who struggle with spontaneous hospital visits can have up to $1 million in
hospital debt. Donating to palliative care can relieve some of these struggles.
Siblings Get More Time With Parents
There’s a lot of pressure put on the parents to make sure their child with chronic illness
will be cared for and as healthy as possible. This may take away some of the attention
from other siblings, making them feel alone and helpless. Through the use of child respite
care, Palliative care allows parents to spend more time focusing on their kids who are not
ill. Palliative care organizations like Brades’ Place also take part in retreats for the
siblings of their patients. This is a time for them to get a break from any responsibilities
they may have at home so they can have time to be kids again. Click here for an example of a Sibling Event!
Family Counseling
Family Counseling can help relieve the stresses of chronic illness within the family.
Being educated by a professional on how to manage the symptoms of the illness and
communicate with one another helps families cope with the pains of illness.
NationalJewish.org talked a bit about how counseling can help families by saying,
“Fostering this type of honest and direct communication is a prime goal of counseling. It
often helps ill children realize their family understands how they feel and is there to help
them.” Honesty works with professional guidance.
Conclusion
Illness doesn’t only affect the child inflicted by it, but it also affects the family as a
whole. Siblings may have a harder time connecting and communicating with their
parents. None of this is intentional, it is one of the many hardships that come with illness.
Donating to palliative care organizations such as Brades’ Place (bradesplace.org) can help
children and parents find relief from the grief of chronic illness.