Careity Rocks

Careity Foundation's Careity Rocks event celebrates the lives and hearts of young critically and terminally ill patients, as well as the professionals who provide the best of care for them. Their support has benefitted patients in our Palliative Care program for the past ten years.

When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, it is life-changing for the child and their family. The patient and family often feel overwhelmed and confused by all the decisions they are facing. At Cook Children's, we believe those families should not have to navigate through this difficult time alone. And that's why our Palliative Care program is here to help.

Pediatric palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from the symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family. The Palliative Care team works in partnership with the patient's other care providers to deliver an extra layer of support. Most of our families are coping with uncertainty and our Palliative Care program is an added support, as they hope for the best, attend to the present, celebrate successes and prepare for the rest. Each family benefits from palliative care in different ways that are unique to their needs. Most are followed over a long period of time, developing deep relationships along the way.

"Because our practice is family-centered, relationship-based, and essentially narrative medicine, we often tell families that their child is 'writing their own story'," said Todd Pearson, M.D., medical director, Cook Children's Palliative Care. 'Our goal is to help their child live as well as possible, for however long their story dictates."

Some of the ways our Palliative Care team provides an added support include:

Assisting with coordination of care and communication.
Providing information and support regarding treatment options and difficult medical decisions.
Assisting the primary care team with symptom management recommendations.
Providing emotional, psychosocial and spiritual support for the child and their family, including siblings.
Helping with access to community and home-based services and resources.
Creating a care plan that is in line with the patient/family's values, cultural and spiritual traditions, illness treatment preferences and goals of care.

At Cook Children's, it's been our experience that patients supported by palliative care have fewer trips to the emergency room, fewer hospitalizations, fewer re-admissions, shorter lengths of stay, less resource utilization (such as pharmacy, labs, radiology/imaging, etc.), better symptom management and actually live longer. And all of that can translate to significant cost savings for the family, as well.

We are extremely grateful to the Careity Foundation for their support of the Cook Children's Palliative Care program for the past ten years. They have remained dedicated to the advancement of the program and awareness of the needs of chronically ill kids, helping to improve palliative care.

We are especially grateful for their considerable time and effort planning and preparing their annual fundraiser, Careity Rocks, which benefits Cook Children's Palliative Care program and for the direct support that the Careity Foundation has provided our families.

Every child's life is sacred and every patient's story is special. We are honored to be able to help our patients continue to write their own amazing stories.