Volume 23, Number 4: April 2022
Community Involvement Essential to Advance Palliative Care
By Dr. John Rosenberg
President, Public Health Care International
What extraordinary times we live in. The global pandemic, natural disasters, and armed conflict dominate our news and social media. Public Health Palliative Care International joins IAHPC and the global palliative care community in expressing its deep concern at the dismantling and destruction of communities. The catastrophe in Ukraine is a sober reminder that civic cohesion is critical to provide palliative care. Yet we must also remember the pre-existing, structural social disadvantages that endure throughout the world and require our sustained efforts.
It’s this social perspective that Public Health Palliative Care International (PHPCI) promotes as an essential approach to palliative care. Utilizing the WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, PHPCI advocates for palliative care service providers, communities, and civic organizations to work cohesively to support dying and grieving citizens, including caregivers.
Advocacy demands
that voices be heard
Advocacy, a critical element of public health palliative care, demands that the voices of those citizens are heard by service providers, within communities, and in the civic governance of our societies. This translates into increased patient participation in palliative care, the mobilization of compassionate communities, and the introduction of public policy through frameworks such as Professor Allan Kellehear’s Compassionate Cities Charter. Advocates are found among palliative care services, organized community groups, and everyday citizens. However, global advocacy of social perspectives is intrinsic to public health palliative care. Collaboration between global palliative care organizations (such as IAHPC and PHPCI) is important to grow the influence of our advocacy.
In 2022, there are three key actions that can inform planned, systemic advocacy of the global palliative care agenda.
3 key actions
Firstly, the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death, released in January, included recommendations for a “radical reimagining of systems for dying, death, and grief.” Led by PHPCI Vice-President Libby Sallnow, an international group of contributors advocate for the reform of social structures and processes that support all citizens who are dying, caregiving, or grieving. In a related blog, I state that these systemic changes are possible where public policies address the “specific needs of communities; where diversity is embraced and disadvantage is attended; where collective harm and grief are publicly acknowledged, particularly when trauma is shared; where health care services are accessible and involved but not in charge.” Planned, deliberate strategies by cohesive communities in partnership with allies in health care are necessary actions to effect change.
Secondly, this month will see the publication of the inaugural Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care. Edited by Dr. Julian Abel and Professor Kellehear, this is the first authoritative textbook on public health palliative care. It emphasizes the crucial roles of culture and community in death, dying, loss, and caregiving. Promoting public health approaches to palliative care, the textbook explores basic theory and concepts, methods of practice, population-based approaches, and research and education. Whether addressing the needs of marginalized groups, building communities’ capacity for care of their own citizens through death literacy, promoting public education, or seeking change to national or international public policy, this textbook demonstrates the critical role advocacy plays in advancing care and support. [Note: IAHPC Senior Advocacy and Partnerships Director Katherine Pettus and IAHPC member Dr. Pati Dzotsenidze, from the Republic of Georgia, co-authored a chapter in the textbook.]
Conference a showcase
on promoting health
IAHPC is offering scholarships to the PHPCI Conference in September in Bruges, Belgium. The application deadline is April 30, 2022.
Finally, in September, the 7th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference will be held in Bruges, Belgium. Organized by PHPCI, the conference demonstrates a partnership between the End-of-Life Care Research Group (academia) and Compassionate Bruges (community). This partnership will showcase how promoting health and well-being in the domains of dying, caregiving, and grieving entails societal and civic responses complementary to health service responses. I encourage you to consider attending.
I hope that in all the challenges of these times, we continue our collective action toward improving the care and support of those nearing the end of their lives, those who care for them, and those who grieve them, as well as advance the voices of the communities in which they all belong.
Dr. John Rosenberg is Senior Lecturer at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
To learn more about End-of-Life Care Research Group visit the IAHPC Global Directory of Palliative Care Institutions and Organizations.