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Children's International Project on Palliative/Hospice Services Workgroup

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Mission Statement: To concretely enhance the science and practice of pediatric hospice and palliative care and to increase the availability of state-of-the-art services to families.

The Children's International Project on Palliative/Hospice Services (ChIPPS) worked to enhance the science and practice of pediatric hospice and palliative care, and to increase the availability of state-of-the-art services to families.

From November 1998 - December 2001, more than thirty international leaders in the field of pediatric palliative care collaborated with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) to develop the Children's International Project on Palliative/Hospice Services. Project participants worked to make the best known practices in the field of pediatric palliative care more widely available to care providers by addressing issues of ethics and decision-making, clinical care, pain and symptom management, psychosocial, spiritual, and bereavement as well as education, policy, and administrative challenges.

In 2001, ChIPPS produced the most comprehensive reference on pediatric palliative care in the United States, entitled "Compendium of Pediatric Palliative Care Programs and Practices". Divided into four sections, the Compendium includes:

  • Models of Pediatric Palliative Care: defines the need for palliative care, models of care delivery, program implementation, and models for education.
  • Communication, Ethics and Decision-making: defines pain management and other symptoms in children; provision of hospice and palliative care to newborns.
  • Psychosocial and Spiritual Care of Children Living with Life-Threatening Conditions: includes spiritual and bereavement issues.
  • An extensive Appendix of materials intended to assist hospices and others in creating pediatric palliative services.

Workgroup Products

  • ChIPPS Compendium Summary 12-01
    A collaboration between leaders in pediatric palliative care and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) produced a comprehensive Compendium of Pediatric Palliative Care Programs and Practices (December 2000). More than 2,500 copies were distributed.

    To order the Compendium of Palliative Care on-line, visit The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization website: www.nhpco.org.

    • Click on NHPCO's Marketplace icon on the left side of the page;
    • Click on Technical Materials and search for Item #810030.

    The item can be ordered by phone by contacting NHPCO at 703-516-4928.

  • Ethics and Decision-Making Subgroup Bibliography
    To view this bibliography, access the ChIPPS area of the NHPCO Web site at www.nhpco.org.


  • A Call for Change:
    Recommendations to Improve the Care of Children Living with Life-Threatening Conditions

    These recommendations are the result of a literature review undertaken by the ChIPPS Workgroup. The literature review outlines what is known as well as what does and does not work in programs that care for children living with life-threatening conditions. The workgroup added its voice to the literature, resulting in a recommended template for pediatric palliative care programs.

    The document, which can be viewed in the ChIPPS area of the NHCPO Web site, identifies actions that legislators, regulators and administrators can take to improve the experiences of children living with life-threatening conditions and their families.

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Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care was a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation dedicated to long-term changes in health care institutions to substantially improve care for dying people and their families.