Specialty Services

Penn State Hershey Palliative Medicine provides compassionate specialized care for the living…. and for those who are sharing the person's journey."  NHPCO

What We Do

• Provide medical assessment and expert management of pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite and difficulty sleeping.
• Social services support and spiritual care for patients and families.
• Assistance in developing and communicating patient oriented treatment plans and goals of care.
• Support of primary treating team and consulting medical specialties.

Pediatric Services

• Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child's body, mind and spirit, and also involves giving support to the family.
• Palliative care seeks to enhance quality of life in the face of an ultimately terminal condition.
• It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease.
• Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child's physical, psychological, and social distress. Palliative treatments focus on the relief of symptoms (eg, pain, dyspnea) and conditions (eg, loneliness) that cause distress and detract from the child's enjoyment of life.
• Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited. It also seeks to ensure that bereaved families are able to remain functional and intact.