1. Target diseases
Severe and rare incurable diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and muscle diseases, other diseases requiring long-term treatment, including severe cerebral palsy
2. Introduction
Children and adolescents with severe, rare, and intractable diseases and their families sometimes experience physical, psychosocial, economic, and spiritual difficulties in the complicated and highly uncertain process of treatment. These complex difficulties begin with diagnosis and persist as the care process is prolonged. Accordingly, in developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan, children and adolescents are provided palliative care along with medical services aimed at diagnosing and treating severe diseases at the same time. In the Pediatric Palliative Medical Clinic opened by Seoul National University Children’s Hospital for the first in Korea, a palliative care team composed of experts such as doctors, nurses, social workers, and psychotherapists provides pain and symptom relief, treatment direction counseling, family counseling, connection with local medical institutions, and psycho-emotional support. The palliative care team strives to maximize the quality of life in the treatment process in cooperation with medical staff in charge of treatment.