• J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2024

    Psychologists as Pivotal Members of the Pediatric Palliative Care Team.

    • Amanda L Thompson, Rachel A Kentor, Megan R Schaefer, and Sarah R McCarthy.
    • Life with Cancer, Inova Schar Cancer Institute (A.L.T.), Fairfax, VA, USA. Electronic address: amanda.thompson@inova.org.
    • J Pain Symptom Manage. 2024 Jun 1; 67 (6): e907e913e907-e913.

    ContextPediatric psychologists possess unique expertise to positively impact the care provided to children with serious illness and their families. Despite increasing recognition regarding the value of psychology in palliative care, psychologists are not yet routinely integrated into pediatric palliative care (PPC) teams.ObjectivesThis special paper seeks to demonstrate distinctive contributions psychologists can offer to PPC teams, patients, and families, as well as highlight how psychologists enhance the work of their interdisciplinary PPC colleagues.MethodsExisting literature, consensus and policy statements, and recently developed competencies inform and provide evidence for the value of incorporating psychologists into PPC.ResultsAs children with serious illness are at risk for mental and physical health symptoms, psychologists' specialized training in evidence-based assessment and intervention allows them to assess areas of concern, create treatment plans, and implement nonpharmacological therapies targeting symptom management and promotion of quality of life. By improving patient and family outcomes, psychology involvement saves money. In addition to clinical care, psychologists are skilled researchers, which can help to advance PPC interdisciplinary research. Lastly, psychologists can play a valuable role in contributing to PPC team education, dynamics, and well-being.ConclusionsWith strong skills in research, clinical care, education, and advocacy, pediatric psychologists are exceptionally equipped to provide care to children with serious illness and their families. Given their unique contributions, it is critical future efforts are directed towards advocating for the inclusion of psychologists into PPC, with the ultimate goal of improving care for children with serious illness and their families.Copyright © 2024 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…