Preparing for Your Consultation
Preparing for your meeting with palliative care can help you better clarify your goals, hopes and concerns regarding your child’s illness and treatment. Children are often concerned about how their illness will affect their ability to enjoy daily activities like going to school, seeing their friends and playing sports — or any number of other activities that they might enjoy. Parents may have their own concerns, including how their child can live a life free of discomfort and participate in family activities.
While your child is receiving treatment you may be presented with options about care, including different types of therapy — each of which may carry its own risks and benefits. It is important to think about how those therapies may affect your child’s quality of life in the framework of your hopes and goals. These are issues you can discuss with our team.
Here are some examples of questions you might think about and discuss with your child and your family before your palliative care consultation:
- When it comes to my child’s quality of life, what is most important?
- What should the medical team know about my child and my family to better understand what is important to us when making decisions?
- What concerns or worries do my child and my family have about symptoms or day to day quality of life? How might potential treatments affect my child’s quality of life?
- How might potential treatments affect my child’s prognosis and what might happen without the treatment?
- Could treatments and/or interventions make my child feel better or worse, and if so, for how long? Are there things we can do to make it easier?
- What additional support would my child and my family look for from the Palliative Care Team?