The children's palliative care unit around Prof. Dr. Boris Zernikow at the children's clinic in Datteln reduces harm of seriously ill children and youths and improves the life quality of the whole family. Diverse as the diseases and the age of the young patients are - they all suffer from a life-threatening illness without any hope for cure. Those children need special care. In the contrast to adults, who often get palliative care only in the last period of their illness, the children mostly live many years with their advancing disease after the shattering diagnosis has been given. With measures of pain therapy, the treatment of other woebegone symptoms and care for the emotional and mental well-being, a protecting coat (pallium = coat) is wrapped around the ill child and its family. Since 2010, the young patients and their families receive comprehensive care at the children's palliative care centre at the children's clinic in Datteln.