For Immediate Release
December 9, 2020

Denver, Colo. — Footprints Children’s Services, which provides hospice, palliative and grief care, has expanded its expertise and resources for young patients and their families in the Denver metro area. 

Pediatric hospice, palliative and grief services fill a critically important role for children and their families. At any given moment, Footprints serves an average of 60 children and young adults with hospice or palliative care.

Footprints is a program of The Denver Hospice, the area’s leading, largest and most trusted not-for-profit provider of life-enhancing hospice and palliative care.

“The Footprints team brings deep and diverse specialized experience that ensures patients and their families can access a full continuum of care. We’re expanding our services as we expand our team and that means even broader and deeper expertise for our patients and their families,” said Melinda Egging, president of The Denver Hospice.

Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Kelly Drake now leads the Footprints team, which includes child life specialists, registered nurses, chaplains and social workers, all with extensive experience with children.  Drake comes to Footprints from KidsCare of the Rockies, where she was interim executive director. She previously worked at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Dr. Kimberly Bennett provides medical direction for Footprints. Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative and Pediatric Medicine, Dr. Bennett completed a Residency in Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine and a Fellowship in Pediatric Critical at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Staff who work with pediatric patients in hospice and palliative care are trained by the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, an education initiative designed to improve palliative care.

Footprints services include:

  • Hospice care, which provides comfort, pain relief and quality-of-life care for children with a terminal diagnosis.

  • Palliative care, which focuses on providing children relief from the pain and stress of serious illness, regardless of the diagnosis.

  • Concurrent care, which ensures a family can receive both comfort and curative care for their child at the same time.

  • Respite care, which provides caregivers short-term relief when day-to-day care for a child with an advanced illness becomes physically and emotionally demanding.

  • Anticipatory grief counseling, which helps children ages 3-17 who have a loved one facing a life-limiting illness and end-of-life transition.

  • Counseling for families following the death of a child, which provides fellowship with others experiencing similar losses, including individual and group counseling for a full year after loss.

The newly opened Amy Davis Hospice Support Center includes dedicated children’s and family counseling areas. It is adjacent to The Denver Hospice Inpatient Care Center, which offers hands-on, compassionate, state-of-the-art care to patients requiring short-term management of uncontrolled pain and other symptoms.

The inpatient center offers 24 private suites with patios. The homelike setting includes a family dining room, a multi-faith chapel, and hydro-therapy spa. Gardens, walkways and high-tech innovations add to the light-filled ambiance and comforts.

Donations can be designated specifically to support the Footprints program. 

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