For children with complex medical needs, palliative care can offer physical relief and also support to families.
However, systemic failures such as a shortage of places that offer palliative care services for children, and also a shortage of physicians who do this work, lead to long wait times and administrative hurdles. The issues with the system, according to experts, can be fixed.
Native American seniors are much less likely than other racial and ethnic groups to receive hospice and palliative care, but a new partnership between a Capay Valley tribe in Yolo County and a local hospice provider seeks to change that.
Yolo Hospice is working with Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to research the challenges that Native American communities face when trying to obtain and plan for end-of-life care.