2017; Volume 18, No 11, November
IAHPC Opportunities
We have so much news to share with you this month that we have created an extra page to keep all the IAHPC information together. Please follow up the links to find out more about these exciting opportunities.
IAHPC/WHO Policy Brief Course in Palliative Care
Call for Applications for free online course – Deadline to apply: November 30, 2017
The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) is collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Service Delivery and Safety in Health Systems and Innovation to implement a free, online educational course on policy in preparation for the July 2018 Open Ended Working Group on Aging (OEWGA9).
The objective of this course is to train palliative care providers/workers to write evidence-based policy briefs so they can effectively work with policymakers to advance palliative care in their own settings. OEWGA9 will discuss palliative and long-term care for older persons. For more information see the publications in the IAHPC newsletter and EAPC blog.
Aims
- To develop evidence-based awareness regarding the provision, or lack thereof, of palliative care for older persons in your country or region.
- To present evidence-based policy briefs on palliative care for older persons to key national and regional officials involved in preparations for the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing in July 2018.
Twenty-four students, four from each WHO region (AFRO, AMRO, EMRO, SEARO) will be selected to participate in the course, which is free of charge. Applications deadline: November 30, 2017.
For fuller information, including a course outline, criteria for eligibility and instructions on how to apply, please click here.
The Lancet Report on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief launched – IAHPC board members and executive director among the contributing authors
Worldwide, more than 25.5 million people a year (almost half of all deaths in 2015), including 2.5 million children, die with serious physical and psychological suffering as a result of disease, injury or illness. Over 80% are in low- and middle-income countries where access to essential palliative care and pain relief is severely lacking. The report, published in The Lancet, provides the first worldwide estimates of serious, health-related suffering and the resultant need for palliative care and pain relief.
The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief is the result of a three-year project involving 61 co-authors from 25 countries.
Among the authors are IAHPC Chair, Professor Lukas Radbruch, Board Director, Professor Eric Krakauer, and Liliana De Lima, Executive Director.
The authors have developed an essential package of palliative care services – including medicines, equipment and staffing models – to be made available by health systems worldwide, and call for more balanced global policies to facilitate access to opioid analgesics to meet medical need, while limiting non-medical use.
Visit The Lancet website for more information.
IAHPC Traveling Scholarships to the 2018 ALCP Congress, EAPC World Research Congress and ICPCN Conference
The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) is pleased to announce it will provide the following scholarships.
- Twenty (20) scholarships to support the travel of palliative care workers to attend the IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Cuidados Paliativos de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Cuidados Paliativos (ALCP) in Santiago, Chile on April 11-14, 2018. Deadline to apply is December 15, 2017. Results will be announced December 29, 2017.
- Five (5) scholarships to support the travel of palliative care workers to attend the 10th World Research Congress of the EAPC in Bern, Switzerland on May 24-26, 2018. Deadline to apply is January 20, 2018. Results will be announced February 15, 2018, and;
- Ten (10) scholarships to support the travel of palliative care workers to attend the 3rd ICPCN Conference in Durban, South Africa on May 30-June 2, 2018. Deadline to apply is January 31, 2018. Results will be announced early March 2018.
Applicants from all disciplines are welcome. In order to apply for a traveling scholarship, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Have not received grants from IAHPC in the past three years.
- Be current IAHPC members. If you wish to apply and are not an IAHPC member, you may join by clicking here.
Preference will be given to applicants:
- who have been IAHPC active members for two or more consecutive years.
- whose institution is an IAHPC active member. See institutional members here.
- who are living in Lower, Lower-Middle and Upper-Middle income categories as per the World Bank income classification data – view here.
- who are dedicated full time to palliative care in their current work.
- who graduated less than 10 years ago from university.
- who have an accepted abstract for poster/oral presentation. Proof of acceptance is required.
- who describe in their applications long-term goals which lead to improvements in any or all of the following areas: Service provision; education; availability of, and access to, medicines; and public policy.
This program offers funding for travel and registration only; applicants will need to secure funding from other sources to cover additional expenses.
More detailed information about the application process and the online form are available at the IAHPC website here.
If you need information on how to apply please email Genevieve Napier, IAHPC Manager of Programs and Projects.
Improve Quality of Life – Palliative Care Education Campaign – IAHPC joins Global #GivingTuesday Movement
As readers know from the many inspiring comments and reports from IAHPC Traveling Scholars, scholarships can make a huge difference to someone from a low-income country who is struggling to develop their skills and experiences in palliative care. A traveling scholarship opens eyes and minds and helps the grantee to acquire new skills that can be adapted to their own setting for the benefit of patients and families.
Dr. Di Xiao, Director and Member of Council of China Life Care Association and Associate Professor at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Dr. Xiao received an IAHPC scholarship to attend the 5th International Public Health & Palliative Care Conference held in Ottawa, Canada, in September 2017. (You can read her report in this issue of the newsletter).
We do all we can to stretch our modest funds but we would love to provide even more grants to more applicants. That's why we are teaming up with Global #GivingTuesday Movement, which pledges to provide additional traveling scholarships for the advancement of palliative care through education in our Improve Quality of Life – Palliative Care Education campaign. To find out more, please visit the IAHPC website.