2026 Child Life Hospice and Palliative Network Virtual Symposium

The Child Life Hospice and Palliative Care Network (CLHPN) invites prospective presenters to submit an online proposal for our Annual Virtual Symposium scheduled for Thursday, October 22, 2026. This interdisciplinary symposium is open to professionals with experience in end-of-life care.

The theme of this year’s symposium is: Where Play Meets Practice: Advancing Care for Children Facing Grief and Serious Illness.

Objectives:

• Explore therapeutic child life strategies for supporting children experiencing serious illness or the loss of a loved one across healthcare settings.
• Develop skills in communicating with children about serious illness, hospitalization, death, and grief.
• Strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and apply evidence-based, culturally responsive practices to support children’s psychosocial needs alongside medical care.
• Advance advocacy efforts that improve and expand systems and services focused on children living with a serious illness.

Call for Proposal: Submission Requirements

Child Life Hospice & Palliative Network’s call for proposal to present at the October 22, 2026 symposium, Where Play Meets Practice: Advancing Care for Children Facing Grief and Serious Illness will be open until midnight on May 22, 2026. Contact [email protected] with questions related to the submission process.

To Submit a proposal, click here.  Please note that you must complete the online proposal form in one sitting, as the system does not allow you to save your progress and return later. 

2026 CLHPN Virtual Symposium Timetable

• Submissions Open: March 26, 2026
• Submissions Close: May 22, 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: June 18, 2026

Proposals are evaluated by CLHPN’s education committee. The evaluation process is a blind review based on the following criterion:

• Connection to the symposium theme
• Clarity of content
• Degree the content is new or innovative
• Theoretical or research base for content
• Diversity and inclusion

Presenter(s) Information

• The name of the primary presenter. This may or may not be the same person as the submitter.

• Information required for the primary presenter: First name, last name, credentials, organization of employment/affiliation, email address, contact number, and full mailing address.

• The primary presenter will be listed as the corresponding contact for proposal updates and selections.

• Additional presenters are expected to complete the accepted submissions in event the primary presenter is not available. 

• Information required for additional presenters: First name, last name, credentials, email address, contact number, and full mailing address.

• One paragraph biographical sketch, including professional areas of expertise that illustrate your ability to discuss the content of the proposed program. 

• Previous presentation/speaking history.

:Abstract Information:

Do not include identifying information (I.e., presenters' names) in this portion of your submission. Submissions with identifying information will be removed from consideration since the review process is conducted as a blind review. 

• Title of presentation

• Abstract summary

• Presentation Focus: Focus categories help the education committee and conference organizers create a balanced program. CLHPN’s education committee reserves the right to change the category if necessary.

  • Assessment-focused: Refers to information gathering, assessment tools, culturally competent assessment practices, determining the best course of action for treatment, and care planning.
  • Intervention-focused: refers to techniques, approaches, and interventions for working with children facing serious illness and grief.
  • Professional issues focused: Refers to challenges impacting staff and organizations working with children facing grief and serious illnesses. Also refers to evolving platforms for practice, self-care, professional development, ethical and moral issues, legal issues, and positive trends in the profession.
  • Contextual and theoretical focused: Refers to research, theories, frameworks, and models that inform and guide work in grief and serious illness.
  • Administration focused: Refers to presentations on work culture, supervision, expanding services, new service lines, program sustainability, and organizational structure.
  • Advocacy focused: Refers to presentations advocating for expanding licensure, reimbursement opportunities, hospice and palliative care-focused legislation,  and improving service availability to underserved communities.

• Learning objectives

  • 3 learning objectives are required

• Outcome: What will the audience take away from your presentation.

• Relevance: Presenters will need to identify how this presentation is relevant to hospice and palliative care.

• A description of the type of content to be used (I.e., PowerPoint, Case Study, and any teaching aides you will be using).

Disclosure: All presenters will be required to disclose relationships with commercial entities. This is necessary to comply with accreditation policies and for sessions to be approved for CEU credit.

Submit Proposal Here