June Newsletter

Message from the Chair and Executive Director Lukas and Liliana comment on events in the U.S., globally, and particular to both IAHPC members and others working in palliative care.
Policy and Advocacy Dr. Katherine Pettus reports on an advocacy victory — negotiators from Zambia and Bangladesh ensured that the World Health Assembly resolution on COVID-19 response now includes palliative care — and outlines advocates’ next steps.
IAHPC News
- Tell It Like It Is: IAHPC members, please take a few moments to fill out a brief survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on palliative care provision and providers. The pandemic has provoked other surveys of interest.
- Global Palliative Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic Series:
  - Upcoming webinars in this ongoing series focus on highly vulnerable patients, telehealth, and nursing.
  - Check out May briefing notes, which add detail and depth to the webinars.
- The first international, case-based manual for children’s palliative care clinicians, edited by Prof. Julia Downing, is published.
- WHO updates its Clinical Management of COVID-19 interim guidance.
- JPSM publishes an article on IAHPC’s Consensus-Based Definition of Palliative Care.
- What’s New in Pallipedia.
- New IAHPC Calendar Listings.
COVID-19 Frontline Report Results of a survey of clinicians and patients in Kenya.
Featured Story Swift and Effective: How Kerala palliative care experts and the government moved quickly to produce a COVID-19 Toolkit Resource E-book applicable to low-resource countries.
IAHPC Book Reviews
Palliative Care Book of the Month

BEFORE AND AFTER LOSS: A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief, and Our Brain Including a reasonable dose of medical science, this is one of the better accounts of grief and bereavement that I have seen.

Other reviews
- THE MEDICINE: A Doctor’s Notes 50 short essays by a Melbourne physician, covering a range of issues, including a number with relevance to palliative care. Enjoyable!
- SPIRITUALITY AND MEANING MAKING IN CHRONIC ILLNESS: How Spiritual Caregivers Can Help People Navigate Long-term Health Conditions Spiritual care, using the narrative of her own rheumatoid arthritis, and using The Wizard of Oz as metaphor for chronic illness.
- DEATH, RELIGION AND LAW: A Guide for Clinicians Covers belief systems in general, death and dying in the 13 major religions, and legal aspects of death in the UK.
Lessons from the Literature
Under My Microscope IAHPC Research Advisor Dr. Tania Pastrana flags a study where burnout for medical staff in COVID-19 frontline wards is less than those in other wards.

Media Watch Notable articles on pediatric palliative care, COVID-19 and grief/bereavement, and family care at end of life selected by Barry Ashpole. Plus a COVID-19 article of particular interest to Asian countries.
Membership Matters
- New & Renewing Members’ List
List of Donors