Seattle-based Nonprofit Organization
🏘️Ladybug House is building Washington State’s first free-standing, family-centered palliative care and hospice home for children with life-shortening illness. Founded by Registered Nurse Suzanne Gwynn, Ladybug House is a Seattle-based nonprofit working to build Washington’s first freestanding, family-centered palliative care home and hospice for children, adolescents, and young adults with life-shortening illnesses. Having worked in pediatric oncology for more than 35 years, Suzanne has a keen understanding of families’ critical need for supportive resources in a homelike setting outside the hospital. Siblings are often left in the care of others, and pets are not permitted. A dull room filled with more machines than loved ones is no place for a child to spend their last days. Even if they are able to die at home, parents face an array of challenges when trying to provide adequate palliative and hospice care in the absence of legal protections or support services. Led by an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, Ladybug House will be a 12-bed facility offering comprehensive services including physician and nursing support, pain and symptom management, emergency respite care, end-of-life care, and emotional, psychological, and spiritual support for family and caregivers including siblings and grandparents. The home will feature a stocked kitchen, kennel for pets, and peaceful outdoor space. With no out-of-pocket cost to families, access will never be restricted on the basis of socioeconomic status. Exhausted families will find rest and renewal at Ladybug House, allowing them to focus on celebrating every moment and every life—together. The Numbers | Population Served
There are 565,000 children living in America with life-limiting chronic illness. About 12,000 children in Washington State alone are living with these conditions, 8% of whom are within the last six months of their lives. A children’s hospice home is not an option for most of the roughly 43,000 children who die every year in the United States. Hospital or Home? Like most American youth with life-shortening illnesses, children being treated in Greater Seattle currently have two options for end-of-life care: the hospital, or home. While the hospital is rarely the first choice, the majority of these children die in hospitals every year. Hospitals can provide 24/7 staff and specialized support that patients require in their final days, whereas this is not guaranteed at home. Hospice care at home is not always an option—and when it is, the home can become an emotionally complex and difficult location for the family before, during, and after the child’s passing. Many parents—especially those with other children—do not wish to create those traumatic memories in their homes. Adults have a third option: hospice. There are about 4,300 hospice care agencies in the U.S. serving roughly 1.4 million people. While some adult hospice homes are able to accept children, many are not equipped. The illnesses, social-emotional factors, and familial dynamics involved in end-of-life care for children differ greatly from adults. Yet, only two pediatric hospice homes currently exist in the U.S., compared to more than 60 in the United Kingdom. Thanks to the advocacy of Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, children’s hospices in the U.K. have received much needed public awareness. Unfortunately, the issue continues to remain largely outside of the public dialogue in U.S. This indicates that the voice of the community is critical to expanding pediatric hospice. These homes are successful, innovative models of treatment for Ladybug House but are only able to serve families in their respective states (California, Arizona, and Minnesota).
