Butterflies Program

For infants and children who have been diagnosed with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses, Valley Home Care’s Butterflies Program provides comprehensive home care services that focus on palliative care, or the comfort and relief of suffering for the child, as well as support for their parents, siblings and extended family members.

Butterflies Services

Professional services can be delivered at home and may include:

• Nursing visits
• Consultations with physicians
• Comfort and pain/symptom relief
• Curative or disease management treatments
• Clinical social work for support and resources
• Rehabilitation 
• Spiritual counseling
• Art therapy
• Hospital visits
• Discharge planning to smooth the transition from hospital to home 
• Respite care
• Hospice services 
• Grief counseling and bereavement follow-up 

The Butterflies Team

The Butterflies team, which works in collaboration with a patient’s physician, includes: 

• Medical director
• Nurses
• Social workers
• Chaplains
• Volunteers
• Home health aides
• Art therapists
• Dietitians
• Physical, occupational and speech therapists
• Pet therapists 
• End-of-life doulas

Eligibility for Services

Valley Hospice and Valley Home Care accept Medicaid and many private insurance plans. All children in Bergen and Passaic counties are accepted regardless of their ability to pay. 

Admission to The Butterflies Program is determined by the team consisting of the child’s physician, the Butterflies core team (medical director, nurse, social worker, and chaplain), and the child's parent(s) or guardian(s).