2018; Volume 19, No 6, June

Announcements, Resources & Dates to Note

Each month, we publish a selection of items that may be of interest to our global readership. Contributions are welcomed; we reserve the right to edit content.

Please also consider promoting your education and training events in the IAHPC Global Directory of Education in Palliative Care. It’s quick and easy — just submit your content online.

Announcements

International Psycho-Oncology Society Research Training Academy:

Travel Scholarships & Project Support for Professionals in Low- and Low-Middle-Income Countries

A generous grant has been secured to fund travel scholarships for professionals in low- and low-middle-income countries to attend the 2018 IPOS Research Training Academy in Hong Kong being held 28-30 October 2018. The theme is, ‘Build the Future Generation of Psycho-Oncology Researchers in Low- and Low-Middle-Income Countries.’

Applications must be received before 22 June 2018. The criteria are in this document; among other things, applicants must be within six years of completion of their training, commit to attending the IPOS Congress that follows (31 October to 2 November), be fluent in English, and provide evidence of a current passport. Interested applicants can visit the website for more information. The deadline for sending questions to [email protected] was June 7, but the deadline was extended until June 13 because the IAHPC newsletter is not distributed until June 10, but be sure to put ‘IAHPC query’ in your subject line for it to be answered.

This Academy ‘aims to combine both capacity-building around knowledge generation using traditional quantitative and qualitative research designs as well as the field of knowledge translation research. It will use a combination of didactic seminars and hands-on research protocol development activities.’

Participants will develop a research project and briefly present it on the last day of the Academy to obtain feedback. Furthermore, ‘we will pair our NCI Scholars with IPOS Mentors for continued scientific support over one year in implementing the research project within their respective countries.’

The grant was provided by CRDF Global in partnership with the U.S.-based National Cancer Institute.

Upcoming UIA Round Tables in Malaysia & France

The Union of International Associations is hosting its 6th Round Table in the Asia-Pacific region in September, and its 12th Round Table in Europe in November. These Round Tables are suited to those working in and with international associations.

The format for both is short, low-threshold seminars for people working in and with international associations, with presentations on challenges such as members, partners, funding, communication, and evaluation. Small group discussions are held so that participants can ask in-depth questions, as well as share and exchange their knowledge and experience.

The Asia-Pacific Round Table on 26 and 27 September 2018 will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The registration fee is $60, thanks to the support of the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau. The Europe Round Table will be held 15-16 November in Lyon, France; the fee is 55 Euro. Registration is open to those with profiles in the Yearbook of International Associations, Associate Members, or other invited guests. To become an invited guest, simply contact UIA’s Nancy Carfrae at [email protected].

The Union of International Associations is a research institute founded in 1907 to promote and document the work of international associations. Its primary task is the collection and dissemination of information on international associations, fulfilled largely by its two main publications, which are free: the Yearbook of International Organizations, and the International Congress Calendar.

Urgent Need for Project Coordinator in Lesotho, Africa

The Najojo Better Living Mission Association (NBLMA) is a recently-created NGO providing free palliative care services based in Teyateyaneng, Berea, Lesotho. The Association is in great need of a Project Coordinator. For more information, send an e-mail to: [email protected].

Palliative Care Tour to Japan in March 2019

Jon Baines Tours has arranged a ‘Care of the Elderly and Palliative Care in Japan’ tour from 5-17 March 2019 led by David Oliviere, a consultant in psychosocial palliative care and former director of Education and Training at St. Christopher’s Hospice in London.

The tour ‘balances a rich cultural program, a professional itinerary, meetings with leading palliative care professionals, and time to explore at your leisure,’ according to the tour operator. Meetings include those with ‘leading palliative care professionals’ to ‘discuss achievements and ongoing challenges they face with their aging population.’

The cost is $4,895 per person, excluding international flights and airport transfers.

Continuing Professional Development professional visits include the Kato clinic, the Red Cross Hospital, Kobayashi Memorial Hospital, Hinoharakinen Peace Memorial House Clinics, Chiba Uni Centre for Excellence in End-of-Life Care, and Chiba Prefectural University of Health Sciences.

Fundraising for European Palliative Care Academy

The European Palliative Care Academy relies on fundraising to run its annual education courses.

According to the Academy, ‘Through the EUPCA leadership training, participants develop skills that help provide security, calmness, confidence, and faith to people facing hardship and bereavement. EUPCA participants are making sustainable and impactful improvements in palliative care and hospice work across Europe.’

A 21,000 Euro donation finances all four course weeks plus the final observation week for one participant. A 42,000 Euro donation finances the same for two participants: one from Eastern Europe, one from Western Europe. A 165,000 Euro donation finances half the course length for all 20 participants.

This is the kind of impact EUPCA training can have, according to a firefighter from Spain speaking about an EUPCA alumni project: ‘This one evening that I came home from work, I could only think of two children who had died in a car accident that day. It was a key moment for me. I was pretending everything was OK, but my wife knew that I had come to the end of my strength. Since I completed the training from Dr. Juan-Pablo Leiva, I am able to handle death better — and also help affected families better. Now I am a ray of hope for some people in emergency situations.’

‘To continue this important work,’ EUPCA says, ‘we need your support. Every two years we need to raise 350,000 Euro to ensure a new course. We therefore depend on partners like you.’ The donation website is online.

End-of-Life University Book Club

In 2018, End-of-Life University has launched a ‘Year of Reading’ books that explore death, dying, and the afterlife in ways that ‘challenge our assumptions and push the boundaries of our belief systems about these "taboo" topics.’

Join the club and access the reading list, including book descriptions and discussion guides, here. There’s a new book added to the list each month, and an online discussion (including the author, at times) takes place at a predetermined date and time. The discussions are archived on the site. The May selection was Sacred Dying: Creating Rituals for Embracing the End of Life.


Recent Speakers at End-of-Life University

Finding Peace in Life and Death

Alua Arthur speaks on learning how to prepare for the emotional and legal needs that arise after death in order to find peace during life.

While dying is a physical, emotional and spiritual experience for patient and family, there are also a number of practical considerations that play a huge role in how peacefully the end of life unfolds. An attorney and certified death midwife, Arthur has built her career on helping people navigate the unexpected legal and financial challenges that arise after death and teaches how to be better prepared for the end of life.


Mothers and Daughters at the End of Life

This was a special interview in honor of Mother's Day. Guest Kate Riley, who is a certified death midwife and author of the book Launching Vee's Chariot: An End-of-Life Tale, shares her experiences as a caregiver for her mother at the end of life. ‘In an intimate conversation we explore our own relationships with our mothers and how they were healed when we were able to care for them as they were dying.’


Resources

Guidelines for Palliative Care in the Global, Resource-Constrained Setting

The Palliative Care in the Global Setting: American Society of Clinical Oncology Resource-Stratified Practice Guideline was released in May. The purpose of the guideline is to provide expert guidance to clinicians and policymakers on implementing palliative care of patients with cancer and their caregivers in resource-constrained settings. It is intended to complement the Integration of Palliative Care Into Standard Oncology Care: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Update of 2016.

The guideline models palliative care and standards for provision of psychosocial support, spiritual care, and opioid analgesics, all of which can be particularly challenging and often not available in resource-constrained settings. (For example, 80% of the world’s population lacks access to morphine.) Its recommendations also help to define staffing requirements, and roles and training needs of team members for palliative care, including the key role of nurses.

‘There is increasing evidence that supports the view that palliative care is an essential part of cancer care,’ said Dr. James F. Cleary, co-chair of the expert panel that developed the guideline. ‘We realized that the 2016 guideline recommendations worked well in countries and regions that already have excellent oncology care and the resources for specialist palliative care, but were less applicable in other settings. This new resource-stratified guideline provides a roadmap for countries around the world as they develop their health policies.’

The guideline is intended to complement but not replace local guidelines.

ASCO convened a multidisciplinary, multinational panel of experts in medical oncology, family medicine, radiation oncology, hematology/oncology, palliative and/or hospice care, pain and/or symptom management, patient advocacy, public health, and health economics. Guideline development involved a systematic literature review of 48 publications regarding palliative care in resource-constrained settings.

Communications Skills Pathfinder Portal Intended for Clinicians Treating Seriously Ill Patients

The Communication Skills Pathfinder was developed through a collaboration of three national health care organizations: Ariadne Labs, the Center to Advance Palliative Care, and VitalTalk. Together they have launched a portal to provide scalable solutions to communication skills training for clinicians of all disciplines treating seriously ill patients in any clinical setting. The goal is to enable every seriously ill American to have the highest quality conversation possible with health care providers.

‘We know that when clinicians learn how to have meaningful conversations with patients that are focused on values and goals, we can transform care for those facing serious illness,’ said Erik Fromme, MD, director of the Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Care Program. ‘The Communication Skills Pathfinder brings together for the first time the tools and resources clinicians need to learn these important and valuable skills.’

The portal enables clinicians and organizations to:

The Communications Skills Pathfinder portal is supported by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Indian Council of Medical Research Sets Definitions Related to Palliative Care

Indian hospitals, in general, lack policies on the limitation of inappropriate life-sustaining interventions at the end of life. To facilitate discussion, preparation of guidelines and framing of laws, terminologies relating to the treatment limitation, and providing palliative care at the end-of-life care (EoLC) need to be defined and brought up to date.

A recent issue of the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine published a consensus document on terminologies and definitions of terminologies prepared under the aegis of the Indian Council of Medical Research. Twenty-five definitions related to the limitations of treatment and providing palliative care at the end of life were created by reviewing existing international documents and suitably modifying it to the Indian socio-cultural context by achieving national consensus.

Currently, in India, the usage of the terms across professional, legal, and social domains has lacked standardization and clarity. This has proved to be a significant barrier to building consensus for public policy relating to EoLC, withdrawal and withholding of medical interventions, right to advance will, and euthanasia. This consensus document was prepared to remove ambiguities in the definitions of terms relating to end-of-life care.

The 25 words and terms

The 25 terminologies defined are: terminal illness, actively dying, life-sustaining treatment, potentially inappropriate treatment, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), do not attempt CPR, withholding life-sustaining treatment, withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, euthanasia, active shortening of the dying process, physician-assisted suicide, palliative care, EOLC, palliative sedation, double effect, death, best interests, health-care decision-making capacity, shared decision-making, advance directives, surrogates, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.

Group Education Program for Family Carers

The Australia-based Centre for Palliative Care has developed a detailed ‘Hospital-Based Group Education Program’ for family carers of palliative care patients. A 20-page booklet describing the program, available online here, is supported with downloadable materials (a handbook, handouts, flyers, a participant feedback survey, etc.).

The Centre for Palliative Care created the program because ‘family caregivers have expressed a desire for structured information to better prepare them for their role, whether their dying relative is in hospital, a palliative care unit, or at home.

‘Psycho-educational interventions delivered on a one-to-one basis (health professional to caregiver) have demonstrated a capacity to decrease caregiver burden, increase caregiver quality of life, and to increase knowledge of patient symptoms. Although one-to-one interventions are appropriate for some family caregivers, others may prefer a group context.

‘The advantages of group interventions are that they allow for social comparison (the comparison of one’s situation with a peer group who are experiencing similar circumstances), social support, sharing of experiences and they often require fewer resources. Therefore, we developed and assessed the effectiveness of a group education program, delivered in the in-patient setting, designed to prepare family caregivers for the role of supporting a relative who is receiving palliative care.’

3-Part Video Series, ‘Death Happens!’

The Australia-based Centre for Palliative Care held a public forum, Death Happens! So let’s talk about how we die, to debunk commonly held myths about palliative care. It provided a safe place for people to air their concerns, learn about their options for end-of-life care, and talk about ways to talk to their family about their wishes.

The video series, freely available here, is in three parts.

In Part 1, Professor Peter Hudson, Director of the Centre for Palliative Care, welcomes the audience and introduces the moderator, Dr. Gael Jennings, Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne, who presents a screening of ‘Marmaduke’s Story: a family’s experience of palliative care’ before welcoming carer Simon Waring to the stage. Mr. Waring cared for both his young son and wife throughout their terminal illnesses and speaks of the vital support palliative care provided for his family.

In Part 2, keynote speaker Dr. Diane Meier, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care in New York, USA, speaks about ‘Transforming the Care of Serious Illness through Palliative Care.’

Part 3 is a moderated panel discussion where questions are taken from the floor. The panel, moderated by Dr. Jennings, includes Dr. Meier, Mr. Waring, Dr. Carolyn Lethborg (Clinical Leader, Cancer & Chronic Illness, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne), Assistant Professor Mark Boughey (Director Palliative Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne), and Carmel Smith (Executive Manager, Goulburn Valley Hospice Care Service Inc, Shepparton).

Dates to Note

Denotes a new listing

Calls for Abstracts

The Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium is scheduled for 16-17 November 2018 in San Diego, California, USA. The submission deadline for abstracts is July 24, 2018. There is a non-refundable $60 submission fee.

TheI Simposio ecancer de Cuidadaos Paliativos is being held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 6-7 September 2018. The submission deadline for abstracts is 10 August 2018.

The 8th Association of South-East Asian Pain Societies (ASEAPS) Congress is scheduled for 11-14 April 2019 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The submission deadline for abstracts (including oral and poster presentations) is 31 October 2018.

Conferences

2018

The Journal of Opioid Management will hold its 7th annual International Conference on Opioids (ICOO 2018) on 10-12 June 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care 2018 Learning Institute takes place 14-16 June 2018 in Ottawa, Ontario.

The 23rd Congress of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine takes place 15-17 June 2018 in Kobe, Japan.

The MASCC/ISOO Annual Meeting on Supportive Care in Cancer takes place 28-30 June 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

Hong Kong’s Community End-of-Life Care International Conference will be held 20-21 June 2018. The theme is ‘Innovation and Impact: The Review and Vision of Community End-of-Life Care.’ The four major foci are: Palliative and Healthcare Environment, Quality of Care, Human Resources, and Community Engagement.

The Comprehensive Interventional Pain Management XIII conference takes place 21-22 July 2018 at the D.Y. Patil Medical College in Nerul, Vani Mumbia, India. A workshop is being held 23-24 June.

The International Federation on Ageing is hosting the 14th Global Conference on Ageing 8-10 August 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The theme of is ‘Toward a Decade of Healthy Ageing – From Evidence to Action.’ The early bird registration deadline is 6 August 2018.

The 1st Ecancer Symposium on Palliative Care (I Simposio ecancer de Cuidadaos Paliativos) hosted by Universidad Catolica is being held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 6-7 September 2018.

The 17th World Congress on Pain is being held 12-16 September 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

A Palliative Care & Spirituality for Life Conference is being planned for 16-18 September in Houston, Texas, USA.

The 23rd Hospice New Zealand Palliative Care Conference is being held 18-21 September 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. The theme is ‘Aukahatia: Fostering Resilience.’ Early bird registration deadline is 27 July 2018.

The International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care’s International Conference on Cancer Nursing takes place 23-26 September 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. The theme is ‘Global Actions: Working Toward Unity and Excellence in Cancer Care.’

The 22nd International Congress on Palliative Care is being held 2-5 October 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. One of the five plenary sessions is on Global Palliative Care.

The annual Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Conference is being held 17 October 2018 in London, England. The theme is ‘From Radical to Real – Implementing new models of palliative care.’

The European Society for Medical Oncology 2018 Congress takes place 19-23 October 2018 in Munich, Germany. The theme is ‘Securing Access to Optimal Cancer Care.’

The 4th Global Gathering Maruzza Congress on Pediatric Palliative Care takes place from 24-27 October 2018 in Rome, Italy. The theme of the conference is ‘Thinking Outside the Box.’

The 20th World Congress of Psycho-Oncology and Psychosocial Academy takes place 31 October to 2 November 2018. The theme is ‘Optimizing Psychosocial Supportive Services in Cancer Care.’

The U.S. Centre to Advance Palliative Care CAPC National Seminar takes places 8-10 November 2018 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The theme is ‘Practical Tools for Making Change.’ A pre-conference workshop takes place 7 November.

The Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium is scheduled for 16-17 November 2018 in San Diego, California, USA.

The International Conference on Hospice and Palliative Care (ICHPC) 20th International Conference on Palliative Care is scheduled for 3-4 December 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Early bird registration deadline is 2 November 2018.

2019

The 8th Association of South-East Asian Pain Societies (ASEAPS) Congress is scheduled for 11-14 April 2019 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The theme is ‘Building Collaboration in Pain Management.’

The 6th Public Health Palliative Care International conference is scheduled to take place in Sydney, Australia in 2019.

The 13th Asia Pacific Hospice Conference is scheduled for 1-4 August 2019 in Surabaya, Indonesia. The theme is ‘Bringing Hope to Those in Despair.’

The 2019 biennial Australian Palliative Care Conference (APCC) is scheduled for 10-13 September 2019 in Perth, Australia.

The 6th International African Palliative Care Conference is being held 17-19 September 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. The theme is ‘Palliative Care and Universal Health Coverage.’ A website has not yet been set up.


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