Volume 24, Number 8: August 2023
Terrific Response to Our Membership Drive
Our membership drive in June and July drew 53 new and renewing individuals and five institutions; we now have 996 members in all. It cannot be overemphasized how crucial members are to the IAHPC's existence—including our advocacy at every level, the maintenance of ongoing programs and services, and the development of new ones.
Membership fees account for 18% of our budget and, until this membership drive, we were far below what had been budgeted. The drive brought us much closer.
Memberships, however, are worth much more than dollars. They represent the need for palliative care advocacy worldwide, thereby justifying our very existence.
Our hope for the future: more talking!
Because of COVID and budget constraints, IAHPC has limited capacity for the face-to-face interactions that helped build our membership in the past. Many do not know the breadth of what we do, and the impact we have. But you do. Please consider talking to your peers about the IAHPC. We rely on your support: we also support those upon whom we rely.
Number of New Members in 2023, by Income Category
Upcoming Webinar on Faith & Spirituality
The IAHPC advocacy team is planning a "Faith and Spiritually in End-of-Life Care" webinar for the United Nations' designated International Day of Peace on September 21 with representatives of the world’s three largest faith populations: Christianity, Islam, and secular/unaffiliated. Father John Damascene Rurangua from St. Joseph’s Hospice in Livingstone, Zambia, Imam Mohammed Asad from Birmingham Central Mosque, England, and Cristina Grisham Montanez, former pastoral counselor at Hospice of the North Coast in Carlsbad, USA, will talk about finding spiritual peace with those approaching the end of life.
Keep an eye out for the September newsletter and IAHPC social media for upcoming details on registration and more information about the webinar's program.
Reminder
- Show us what palliative care looks like where you live! Submit your snaps to IAHPC's 2023 Photo Contest. The deadline is October 31: see the submission details.
Tidbits
Fraud Provokes Commentary on
Core Values in Palliative Care
In response to a number of studies and public reports about problems of fraud and quality problems in hospice care in the United States, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine Professor Emeritus Ira Byock drafted a statement on the Core Roles and Responsibilities of Physicians in Hospice Care. The draft article was signed by 325 hospice and palliative medicine physicians in the US, including 20 past presidents of the American Association of Hospice Palliative Medicine, and has now been published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, which has made the article open access for a short while.
SANAD Receives Leadership Award
Model and capacity building programs by SANAD, The Home Hospice Organization of Lebanon, received the European Palliative Care Academy Leadership Award at the 18th EAPC World Congress in Rotterdam in June. The award's aim is to "support and enable leaders in palliative care and their institutions to create their own palliative care service programs and improve the palliative care knowledge and skills of health care professionals from diverse backgrounds."
Good News!
The Singapore Straits Times reported a 30% increase in the number of people receiving hospice care since 2017. The statistic was announced by the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Rahayu Mahzam. Furthermore, a pilot project by a major hospital began May 1 to transfer intensive care patients who want to return home to their preferred place of death.
Call for Papers on Pain in Vulnerable Groups
February 29, 2024, is the deadline to submit a paper on pain in vulnerable groups for an upcoming issue by the journal BMC Medicine. Several topics are considered desirable, including clinical interventions for at-risk groups, health care inequalities, psychosocial and psychological aspects of pain. See the full list, and details about submitting your paper.
McGill Congress Online
All plenaries, talks, and seminars of the 2022 McGill International Palliative Care Congress are now on YouTube.
Journal Watch
Palliative Care Journal Watch is an ongoing series by experts that explores key topics in the palliative care literature, with a self-described "focus on practice change and systems design." Available as a podcast on Spotify, Google, and Apple.
Open Access CAPC Course
"Introduction to Palliative Care for Health Professionals" is an open access course developed by the US-based Center to Advance Palliative Care. It comprises an introduction, how palliative care is delivered, its impact on quality of life, and the growing population of patients who need it.
OPCC Program
The program of the Oceanic Palliative Care Conference in September is now online.
What’s New in the Calendar
Each year, the IAHPC Calendar of Events lists hundreds of activities of interest to the palliative care community, including conferences, courses, meetings, webinars, lectures and more. Access all listings in IAHPC Calendar of Events: the listings below have been added in the past month.
Argentina
Oncology Applied to Palliative Care—Fourth Edition 2023. Online course. August 7-November 7, 2023.
India
10-day Foundation Course in Palliative Medicine for Doctors. In person. August 3-16, 2023, Trivandrum.
Foundation Course in Palliative Care (FCPC)—Psychosocial Interventions (Basics)—ECHO. Online. August 16-October 18, 2023.
Spain
Use of Opioids in Nursing II Edition. In-person course. September 26-27, 2023, Madrid.
UK
Principles and Practice of Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Registered Nurses, Nursing Associates, and Allied Health Professionals. In-person course. September 12-14, 2023, London.
Global Palliative Nursing Network: "An Ethical Framework for Nursing Today." Webinar. September 13, 2023.
Masterclass: "Demonstrating and Improving the Quality of End-of-Life Care: Implementing and using outcome measures in clinical practice." In person. September 21, 2023, Crewe.
Principles and Practice of Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Health and Social Care Assistants. In-person course. September 26-27, 2023, London.
Marie Curie Research Conference: "Improving End of Life for All" 2024. Online. February 2-5, 2024.
USA
INPCS23: "Coming Together to Transform Care." In-person conference. September 12-15, 2023, Minneapolis.
Check the Calendar
Find a workshop, seminar, congress, or conference to interest you in the IAHPC Calendar of Events, updated monthly, that lists activities of special interest to those who work in palliative care. Or submit an event for consideration; it’s free!
Promote Your Courses
Promote 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.
Do you have any questions regarding the IAHPC Calendar of Events and IAHPC Directories?
Each month, we publish items that may be of interest to our global readership. Contributions are welcomed.
- Content should describe opportunities to advance palliative care and improve knowledge, skills, and networking, e.g., education and training, travel grants, access to online resources, etc.
- 150 words maximum.
- Copy deadline: 20th of each month.
- Please submit your copy to the editor together with any JPEG images. 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.