Pain Management and Palliative Care integrates acute and chronic pain strategies with palliative approaches that focus on symptom relief, quality of life and family-centred decision-making across serious pediatric illness. This session is aimed at pediatric pain specialists, palliative care clinicians, oncologists, anesthesiologists, nurses and allied professionals who provide symptom management and supportive care. Presentations will cover multimodal analgesia, non-pharmacologic interventions (CBT, physiotherapy, integrative therapies), interventional options for refractory pain, and opioid-sparing strategies that balance efficacy with safety. Palliative tracks will explore early integration of palliative principles, symptom control across the disease trajectory, communication around goals of care and bereavement support for families.

Workshops will include procedural pain-minimisation techniques for infants and children, protocols for titration and monitoring of analgesics, and frameworks for advance care planning that respect cultural and family preferences. Case-based panels will highlight complex symptom management—refractory dyspnoea, neuropathic pain and cachexia—and demonstrate interdisciplinary pathways that combine medical therapy, rehabilitation and psychosocial supports. Ethical sessions will address decision-making capacity, assent/consent in adolescents and approaches to existential distress. Implementation resources include pain assessment tools validated for various ages, palliative care checklists, symptom management algorithms and templates for family communication and documentation.