2013; Volume 14, No 11, November

Announcements

Requesting applications for IAHPC’s Human Rights and Palliative Care Advocacy Officer – Job Description

Background

The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) is a 501(c)3 organization based in Houston, Texas working to support and advance palliative care in three areas: education, access to medicines (in particular opioids for pain relief) and appropriate policies for the provision of palliative care. The mission of IAHPC is to increase the availability and access to hospice and palliative care for patients and families throughout the world. The organization works with existing palliative care associations and individuals to improve access to education and training resources and to foster opportunities in these areas. Since it was founded in 1980, IAHPC has pursued the following strategies: convening regional and national workshops with international and national drug regulators, developing palliative care awareness campaigns in partnership with member countries to increase knowledge of available palliative care services, advocating for access to essential medicines by supporting development of evidence-based policies, developing educational tools and resources to improve palliative care provision, facilitating access to new knowledge and information, and providing technical support to their membership as needed to address the problems of access to palliative care and essential palliative care medicines. In the last five years, IAHPC has also pioneered engagement with health and human rights mechanisms, such as the World Health Assembly and the Human Rights Council to advance access to palliative care.

IAHPC plays a leadership role with palliative care providers around the world and has been at the forefront of promoting palliative care and pain treatment as human rights for over 20 years.

Role Description –Palliative Care Advocacy Officer

IAHPC seeks a part-time expert to join as a Palliative Care Advocacy Officer to be based in Geneva. This Advocacy Officer will lead and further develop IAHPC’s and its members’ engagement with UN’s human rights and health mechanisms to advance the legal recognition of palliative care and pain treatment as human rights.

The Advocacy Officer will work closely with IAHPC’s Executive Director and with members of the Board of Directors. The Advocacy Officer will report directly to the Executive Director, who will provide guidance and monitoring from IAHPC’s office through email, Skype, and regular visits. The Executive Director will be supported in this supervision by an advisory committee of experts, including representatives of regional palliative care associations and international human rights organizations.

During the first few months of the project, the Advocacy Officer will receive training in basic concepts of palliative care and service provision, learning about different models of care in low, middle, and high resource countries. In addition to visiting local palliative care projects in Switzerland, a week of residential training will be arranged in palliative care settings (TBD). The Advocacy Officer will also accompany a representative from Human Rights Watch in his field work documenting reports and conducting advocacy on palliative care as a human right.

Main Responsibilities

The Advocacy Officer will work with IAHPC and member organizations to coordinate human rights advocacy on palliative care and pain treatment. This will entail participating in UN meetings, visiting country missions, helping develop shadow reports, collaborating with country delegations, etc.

Following this orientation period, the Advocacy Officer’s work will initially focus on developing a strategy for engagement with human rights and health mechanisms and laying the groundwork for effective advocacy. This will include the following activities:

• Analysis of existing standards to set benchmarks: This will entail examining treaties, resolutions, statements, jurisprudence, and treaty body interpretations to assess opportunities to address gaps in the international recognition of palliative care and access to pain treatment as a human right.
• Identification of target mechanisms: This work will focus on identifying monitoring bodies that are particularly poised to recognize palliative care and build on previous advocacy with them. These will most likely include the World Health Assembly, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Council.
• Engagement of target mechanisms: The Advocacy Officer will invest in building relationships with relevant members, secretariats, mission representatives, and stakeholders. A mapping of partners will also be developed and shared with IAHPC members to enhance their advocacy efforts.
• Capacity building of IAHPC and its member organizations: This will entail working with IAHPC and its members to develop reports highlighting palliative care needs and government obligations, as well as supporting IAHPC members on effective follow-up advocacy with monitoring bodies and their national governments.
• Development of core advocacy arguments: Primers with core advocacy arguments to use with the various mechanisms will be developed for national partners and the relevant mechanisms.

Qualifications

Education

• Postgraduate qualification in international law and/or human rights.

Knowledge

• Sound understanding of the international conventions on human rights, the member states’ obligations and the mechanisms of enforcement.
• Basic knowledge of global public health.
• An understanding of current debates and directions in health and human rights and an ability to leverage these to drive outcome focused results for the palliative care population.

Experience

• Advocacy, research, and policy experience in an international setting.
• Human rights experience, preferably on health and human rights issues.
• Experience working in coalitions or networks.
• Work experience in a developing country is highly desirable.

Skills

• Strong verbal communication skills. Public speaking experience is strongly preferred.
• Ability to write clearly and succinctly for a range of audiences, from formal submissions to short articles for social media or blogs.
• Working fluency in a relevant second language is highly desirable (e.g. Arabic, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Well organized and able to manage multiple tasks.
• Ability to respond flexibly to changing priorities and to set and work to deadlines.
• Ability to manage a budget (track expenditure / basic use of Excel etc).
• Excellent computer literacy (Word, Excel, PP or similar).

Attributes

• Self-motivated with a personal commitment to advocating for human rights and access to palliative care.
• Ability to learn quickly about new issues or advocacy targets.
• Willingness and ability to travel.
• Successful applicants will be asked to show proof that they can legally work in the USA and in Switzerland. Compensation will be done in the USA.

Recruitment Process

Please apply by sending a CV (maximum length 3 pages) and cover letter (maximum 2 pages) to [email protected] Your cover letter should show why you are interested in this position and how you meet the qualifications. We will only be able to contact shortlisted candidates.

Terms and Conditions

Salary

Between $30,000 and $35,000 per year depending on experience. Salary reviews and performance appraisals are done in January every year.

Work Hours

This post requires a working week of 25 hours (excluding breaks). These hours will be worked as agreed with the Executive Director but some flexibility may be required to meet the needs of the job. There is no paid overtime.

Holidays

Holidays are 20 days per year plus bank holidays.

Length of term

Twelve months with likely renewal based on the project’s success.

Probationary Period and Notice Period

There is no probationary period for this role. The job may be terminated by IAHPC for any reason with a 30 day notice.

Location

The post is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Overseas travel will be required.

VIII Palliative Care Congress in Argentina.

The event, the most important event related to palliative care in Argentina, is organized by the Argentinian Association of Medicine and Palliative Care. The congress will be held in Mar del Plata city on 14-16 November 2013, and will have as special guests Dr. Robert Twycross and Dr. Xavier Gomez-Batiste. The main goal this year is to build bridges with other medical specialties, to improve access of people with life threatening diseases to palliative care.

More information here.

2014 Dignity Therapy Workshop in Winnipeg, Canada

Dignity Therapy, a therapeutic intervention, aims to bolster the dignity of dying patients and address their suffering by inviting individuals with life-limiting illnesses to reflect on matters of importance to them. This intensive two-and-a-half-day Dignity Therapy training workshop, led by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, will be of interest to:

• clinicians working with palliative care and/or geriatric patients and who are in a key position to use Dignity Therapy researchers who wish to include Dignity Therapy in the development of new research projects
• health care administrators/nursing home administrators responsible for creating and operationalizing an approach to care that supports and affirms patient dignity and personhood

The registration is now open; more information here.

Launch of National Palliative Care Documents in Kenya

The Ministry of Health in conjunction with Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) has launched five important National Palliative Care Documents:

1. National Palliative Care Guidelines 2013
2. National Palliative Care Training Curriculum for HIV & Aids, Cancer and other Life Threatening Illnesses - Training - 2013
3. National Palliative Care Training Curriculum for HIV & Aids, Cancer and other Life Threatening Illnesses - Trainer's Manual - 2013
4. National Palliative Care Training Curriculum for HIV & Aids, Cancer and other Life Threatening Illnesses - Trainee's Manual - 2013.
5. Legal Aspects in Palliative Care

The health authorities said that they are working with relevant stake holders to develop a national policy on palliative care that will focus on strengthening integration of palliative care, access and availability of appropriate pain controlling medication and capacity building.

Source: ehospice, October 2013 issue. http://www.ehospice.com/kenya/en-gb/home.aspx

Intensive Course “Suffering, Death and Palliative Care”

The section of Healthcare Ethics, department IQ healthcare, (Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre) organizes the 16^th edition of the advanced European Bioethics Course ‘Suffering, Death and Palliative Care’ -- February 11 – 14, 2014.

The aim of the course is to educate participants on a range of ethical issues related to suffering, palliative care and medically assisted death. Extensive insight into the medical, philosophical, theological and ethical foundations of these concepts will be addressed. During the course experts will give presentations on various topics in the domain of palliative care.

This course is of interest to participants from diverse professional backgrounds, such as nursing, medicine, health care administration, ethics, philosophy, theology and pastoral care, and PhD students undertaking courses of study in these areas.

For more information or registration at www.masterbioethics.org -under Intensive courses – or https://med.kuleuven.be/eng/erasmus-mundus-bioethics/documents/sufferingdeath

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