Comfort-focused pediatric hospice and pediatric palliative care
Little Treasures brings comfort-focused pediatric hospice and pediatric palliative care to children with a serious or life-limiting condition, wherever that child calls home.
Little Treasures
A Guide To Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Care on the Treasure Coast
When a doctor uses the word “serious,” about your child, you are in one of the hardest places a parent can stand. And you are still showing up, still looking for the best care you can find. That instinct is love, and it is exactly the right one.
You can talk to a real person right now
If you would rather speak with someone than read, call our team any hour at 772-403-4500, or reach admissions and referrals at 772-403-4551. There is no cost to ask and no obligation.
What Little Treasures is
What Little Treasures Is
Little Treasures is the pediatric hospice and palliative care program of Treasure Coast Hospice. It exists for infants, children, and teens living with a serious illness, and for the families who love them.
This page explains what the program is, who it serves, what the care team does, how a family starts, and why so much of it is possible only because of donors.
Pediatric care is its own kind of medicine. A child is not a small adult, and caring for a seriously ill child asks for clinicians who understand childhood illness, child development, and the particular grief that families carry when the patient is a son or a daughter. That is the expertise Little Treasures is built around. You can learn more about this service we offer on our pediatric care page.
If the word “hospice” frightens you, you are not alone, and it may not mean what you fear. For children, comfort care and curative treatment often travel together, which is one of the most important things a parent can understand early. More on that below.
A fuller life for your child
The goal is a fuller life for your child and steadier ground for your family.
A team that surrounds all of you
That means careful attention to pain and symptoms, help with the hard questions, and a team that surrounds all of you, not only the patient.
The Little Treasures Care Team
Caring for a seriously ill child takes more than any one person can give, so Little Treasures wraps a full team around your family.
Comfort also comes through the senses. Music therapy for children is a real clinical service, not a nicety; a board-certified music therapist can ease pain, lower anxiety, and give a child a way to express what words cannot. Little Treasures children can access music therapy as part of the plan. And you can meet the broader care team here.
This is a lot to hold. If you are feeling overwhelmed, that is the most normal thing in the world. Call 772-403-4551 and ask your questions out loud to a real person who cares.
A pediatric hospice nurse
At the center is a pediatric hospice nurse who becomes your steady point of contact, someone who knows your child, answers the phone, and helps you feel less alone at 2 a.m.
A pediatric palliative care nurse and physicians
Guide pain management and symptom management, so your child is as comfortable as possible, as much of the time as possible.
A pediatric hospice social worker
Helps you carry the practical weight, the paperwork, the school conversations, the benefits, the decisions that pile up when you can least afford the energy.
A child life specialist
Plays a quiet, powerful role. Through play, honest words, and preparation, a child life specialist helps a sick child understand what is happening in a way that fits their age, and helps siblings cope too.
Chaplains
Offer spiritual support on your family’s terms, whatever you believe.
Complementary Therapist
Give tired parents a moment to breathe.
Pediatric palliative care conditions
What Little Treasures Cares For
Families often ask which conditions qualify.
01The program supports children with advanced cancer, complex heart conditions, genetic and metabolic disorders, severe neurological conditions, and other serious diagnoses
Where comfort, quality of life, and family support matter as much as treatment.
Pediatric palliative care conditions cover a wide range, because a life-limiting illness in children can take many forms.
02A life-threatening illness in a child does not always follow a clear script
And Little Treasures is designed to adapt as your child’s needs change.
If you are unsure whether your child’s condition fits, you do not have to figure that out alone; a phone call is enough to start.
Concurrent Care: Comfort and Treatment at the Same Time
Here is a distinction that changes how many parents feel about all of this. For adults, choosing hospice usually means stepping away from treatments aimed at a cure. For children, the rules are different.
Under federal law, children covered by Medicaid or CHIP can receive hospice care at the same time they keep pursuing curative treatment
This is called concurrent care. Your child can still see specialists, still get therapies aimed at fighting the illness, and still have the comfort, symptom management, and family support that pediatric hospice provides.
Concurrent hospice care means you are not asked to choose between hoping and comforting
You can do both.
Pediatric concurrent care is one reason families often start sooner than they expected
Concurrent care pediatric hospice support can begin while treatment continues, so your child feels better along the way and your family is not carrying the weight alone.
Who Little Treasures Serves
Little Treasures cares for children across every age and stage, from the very beginning of life through the teenage years.
The common thread is a serious childhood illness that changes what a family needs. Some children have a life-threatening illness with an uncertain path, and some are terminally ill, facing a diagnosis no parent should ever have to hear. Others live for years with a life-limiting condition that calls for steady comfort and expert symptom management. Little Treasures meets each child where they are.
Infant hospice care
That includes infant hospice care for a baby with a serious diagnosis.
Neonatal palliative care
And neonatal palliative care for the earliest and most fragile patients.
Perinatal support
For families facing a diagnosis before birth, perinatal support helps you plan, prepare, and hold on to the moments that matter.
School-age kids
As children grow, the program supports school-age kids living with a life-limiting illness.
Adolescent palliative care
And it extends through adolescent palliative care for teens who deserve a voice in their own care and a team that treats them like the young people they are.
The door stays open
Palliative care for children is not reserved for the final days. Pediatric palliative care can begin at diagnosis, alongside treatment, and it can continue for as long as it helps. Whether your family needs support for weeks, months, or years, the door stays open.
Support for the whole family
Support for the Whole Family
When a child is seriously ill, the whole family lives inside that illness. Little Treasures is built to support all of you.
Parents carry an exhaustion that is hard to describe, and family support is woven through everything the team does, from teaching hands-on care to simply making sure you eat and rest. Respite care can give worn-out parents a planned break while your child is cared for safely, which matters most for medically fragile children who need constant attention at home.
Brothers and sisters feel it too, often silently. Sibling support helps a brother or sister put words to big feelings, and dedicated grief support for children gives siblings a safe place when a family is frightened or grieving. If your family is anticipating loss or living through it, bereavement support for families continues after a child dies, for as long as you need it. Our wider grief support services are open to the whole community, including pediatric grief support and children’s grief programs, and much of it is free.
No one in your family walks this alone, including the ones who are trying to be strong for everyone else.
What it costs
What Little Treasures Costs
Money should never decide whether a seriously ill child gets comfort. On the Treasure Coast, it does not.
And here is the promise that matters most. Treasure Coast Hospice provides care regardless of ability to pay. This is why the Treasure Coast Hospice Foundation exists, and why the generosity of neighbors reaches straight to a child’s bedside. If you want to help another family, you can give to the Foundation.
Medicaid, Medicare, and many private plans
For most families, Medicaid and Medicare cover pediatric hospice, and many private plans do as well. Does Medicaid cover pediatric hospice? In most cases, yes, and Medicaid concurrent care rules are part of why a child can receive comfort care and curative treatment together. Whatever your coverage, the team will explain it in plain language so you are not guessing.
Donor-funded well beyond what insurance covers
Little Treasures is donor-funded well beyond what insurance covers, so the extras that make a childhood softer, music therapy, child life services, sibling programs, and family support, are possible for every family.
No child is turned away
No child is turned away, and no family is asked to trade their savings for their child’s comfort.
Across the Treasure Coast
Little Treasures Across the Treasure Coast
Little Treasures is part of Treasure Coast Hospice, the nonprofit that has cared for this community since 1982. Based in Stuart, FL, the program brings care to your child wherever home is, across Martin, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties in Florida.
Ready to take a first step, or not sure yet? Both are okay. Call 772-403-4500 any hour, reach admissions at 772-403-4551, or send us a message. You can also learn more about all of our care services. However you begin, you begin with someone beside you.
Families across the Treasure Coast
That means families in Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, and Port Salerno, families up in Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, and Tradition, and families out in Okeechobee.
Pediatric home hospice and in-home pediatric hospice
Let your child stay in their own bed, surrounded by their own things and the people who love them.
When a symptom needs closer attention
Higher levels of care are available for short periods. Wherever you are on the Treasure Coast, help is close.
How families start
How Families Access Little Treasures
Starting is simpler than most parents fear, and every step is designed to lift weight off your shoulders, not add to it.
To access pediatric hospice for your child, call admissions and referrals at 772-403-4551 or our 24/7 line at 772-403-4500. Clinicians can also refer a patient here. You will not be handed a form and left to sort it out; a real person guides the whole process.
A pediatric hospice referral can come from your child’s doctor, a hospital team, or directly from you as a parent
You do not need anyone’s permission to ask a question.
When you reach out, the team walks you through pediatric hospice eligibility
And helps you understand who qualifies for pediatric hospice, which depends on your child’s condition and needs rather than a single rigid checklist.
From there, admission is handled gently and quickly
So care and comfort can begin soon.
You Do Not Have to Carry This Alone
Whatever brought you to this page, a new diagnosis, a hard conversation, or a fear you have not said out loud, you have already done the brave thing by looking for help. Little Treasures is here for your child and for you, with comfort, expertise, and a team that treats your family like its own.
Call Treasure Coast Hospice any hour at 772-403-4500, reach admissions and referrals at 772-403-4551, or reach out through our contact form. Whatever comes next for your family, you will not face it alone.