Message from the Chair
&
Executive Director
Kathleen M. Foley, MD (USA)
Liliana De Lima, MHA (USA)
Dear Readers:
This month we will have a meeting of the Board of Directors during the Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) in Budapest. We will analyze ways in which IAHPC may help better serve its purpose and mission while it also collaborates and does not duplicate the efforts of the many organizations that are now establishing themselves in support of palliative care in developing countries. These are exciting times for palliative care and there has been a tremendous increase in the interest in international issues. However, this interest does not always result in a truly global agenda, but rather in fractured and regionalized efforts. In our effort we strive to keep things operationally simple and also to be cost effective using the limited funding that we have available. We continue to have a global scope, and will collaborate and communicate with organizations, NGOs and institutions from around the world that are also helping in the field. Our Board meeting will be helpful in defining these issues.
As many of you know, the Congress of the EAPC has constantly been able to attract participants and speakers not only from European countries, but from around the world. EAPC has also become more interested in global issues and especially those
concerning developing countries. We welcome this initiative and applaud the vision of the organization in developing and putting in place an excellent Congress, not only in breadth but also in depth. We are glad to be supporting the congress by funding the following participants
from developing countries:
Through our Meeting Support grants program:
- Dr. Faith Mwangi Powell - Director of African Palliative Care Association (APCA)
- Ms Carolina Monti - Managing director - Latin American Association for Palliative Care (ALCP)
Through our Traveling Scholarships Program:
- Dr. Sergio Conti - Medical Doctor, Hospice de la Frontera, Tijuana, Mexico
- Dr. Jorge Eisenchlas - Director Palliative Care Service, Hospital Udaondo, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Director, ALCP Research Task Force.
- Dr. Maria Fidelis – Fellow in Supportive Palliative and Hospice Care, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines.
- Ms. Harmala Gupta - President and CEO, CanSupport, New Delhi, India.
- Dr. Anil Kumar Paleri - Institute of Palliative Medicine, Pain and Palliative Care Society, Calicut, Kerala , India
- Dr. Maria Alejandra Palma - Director Palliative Care Program, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
- Dr. Rene Rodriguez - Director Pain and Palliative Care Medicine, Social Security Institute, Cali, Colombia.
We are also collaborating with EAPC and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) to support national associations. A pre-congress session coordinated by the WPCA will take place on June 6 th during which representatives from national associations from around the world will be asked to propose three critical areas in which they will commit themselves to work in order to help support and develop palliative care in their countries/regions. These commitments will be known as the Budapest Commitments and a summary of them will be presented during the Congress’ closing ceremony on June 9 th. The three organizations will continue working together and helping the national associations work towards the attainment of these goals. A follow up of the commitments will be conducted in two years during the next EAPC meeting.
Also, to all those who plan to attend the EAPC Congress in Budapest, please stop by the IAHPC booth, in Building C. We look forward to seeing you there!
Last month we spent a week in Guadalajara, Mexico in what was the first time that the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) and The Education on Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC) Project courses were given in Latin America. The initiative was the result of an effort by Dr. Sergio Conti from Hospice de La Frontera in Tijuana and Ms Beatriz Montes de Oca, RN, director of Hospice Cristina in Guadalajara City. With the support from Pisa pharmaceuticals, a full team of physicians under the leadership of Dr. Frank Ferris, and nurses under the leadership of Mr. Roger Strong, RN, APN, from San Diego Hospice in the USA traveled to Guadalajara to teach both courses to nurses and physicians from all over the country. The workshop was very intense and included presentations on the progress and programs in Mexico. We have already discussed ways in which both tools can be adapted to the Latin American culture and facilitate the translation of the material into Spanish. Many thanks to the staff from San Diego Hospice for their support and interest in bringing these teaching tools to Latin America, to Laboratorios Pisa for their support in funding this activity, to Ms Montes de Oca for her hospitality in Guadalajara and to all the locals for their participation and interest.
Faculty and participating physicians from Mexico, in the EPEC course
Faculty and participating nurses from Mexico, in the ELNEC course
For those who are not familiar with these courses, the ELNEC is a comprehensive education program to improve end-of-life care given by nurses in the USA, and is funded by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Primary project goals are to develop a core of expert nursing educators and to coordinate national nursing education efforts in end-of-life care.
EPEC has designed a core set of educational materials to enhance training presentations in palliative and end-of-life care for physicians. These materials may be adapted to any educational format - from full two-day conferences to single topic grand round presentations, medical school curricula, seminars, or even self-study.
In our previous edition of the Newsletter we included an invitation to participate in the Information Survey, coordinated by the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). The WPCA is a network of all the regional and international palliative care organizations from around the world. The purpose of the survey is to collect data on information resources available and used by regional and national organizations. If you haven’t done so yet, please help us by completing this brief questionnaire on or before June 30th, 2007. If you represent more than one organization which publishes newsletters and bulletins, you may complete a form for each organization. To enter the survey, please click on the following link:
http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/forms/wpca_bulletin_survey/index.asp
We are very grateful with the Purdue Fund and especially with Ms Pamela Bennett, executive director of Healthcare Alliance Development for their unconditional donation to IAHPC to support our programs and help relieve suffering of patients. Pam has been a keen collaborator and supporter of our organization. This donation will help us continue helping others and working towards achieving our mission.
Until next month,
Kathy Foley, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
Top of Page |
