Supportive Care Team

Caring for Our Sickest Children

A child waits for a bone marrow transplant. A mother hovers over a baby who was born with a serious birth defect. A toddler battles a rare and incurable cancer.

These are the stories that tug the hardest at our hearts. But at times like these, when it often seems like there is little we can do, we can witness amazing acts of caring at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

Helping Families of Children With Serious Illnesses

Since 2005, the Pediatric Supportive Care Program at Golisano Children’s Hospital has provided compassionate care to children suffering from acute and chronic illnesses. We care for these children in the hospital, in outpatient clinics, and at home.

Children with serious illnesses may suffer from physical, emotional, social, and spiritual pain. Our multidisciplinary team sits side-by-side with these children and their families as they struggle with pain, other discomfort, or the stress of making difficult health care decisions. We work with them, giving them the time it takes to relieve this suffering during the most challenging moments of their lives. Our goal is simple—to make children and their families feel better.

The need for supportive care is growing exponentially. More children need us, and a wider scope of services is needed, too. With your help, we can fulfill our vision of a future where we reach every child, and every family member, when they need us most.

How Your Gift Can Help

By making a gift to Golisano Children’s Hospital, you will help bring cutting-edge resources to chronically-ill children and their families.

• Building Our Supportive Care Team
  The need for supportive care is growing rapidly. We anticipate the demand for supportive care consultations to grow at a rate of 200-250 per year. To meet the need for more inpatient, outpatient, and home visits, we will need to expand our team. Your gift can help us do that.
• Care for Those Who Need Us Most
  In certain situations, supportive care needs to be provided automatically:
  • When babies are born prematurely before 24 weeks
  • When children have severe congenital anomalies
  • When children require a bone marrow transplant
  • When children are in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
• Prenatal Supportive Care
  Expectant mothers who are at high risk of delivering infants with severe birth defects have a special need for supportive care. We are working with area neonatologists and obstetricians to establish a program that will ensure that these moms and their babies and families all receive the care and support they need.
• Pediatric Supportive Care Training Program
  Supportive care is a unique discipline that requires specialized training. A Supportive Care Training Program will educate current and future pediatricians and specialists, while also encouraging research into improving supportive care.
• Helping More Families in More Ways
  There are many opportunities for making supportive care even better and more available. By linking to Lifetime Care/CompassionNet, we foresee a future with more collaboration on clinical research projects, greater integration of services, and more community-based services for uninsured and underinsured children.

More Information

For more information regarding how you can support these important programs, please contact:

Golisano Children's Hospital
University of Rochester Advancement
Phone: (585) 273-5948

To make an online gift to the Pediatric Supportive Care Program, please click here.