A Victory! Two Little Words
By Katherine Pettus, PhD
IAHPC Senior Advocacy and Partnerships Director
Years of dogged advocacy at the United Nations have finally borne fruit! Decision 14/1 of the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA, hereinafter WG), referencing gaps in human rights protections for older adults, including lack of palliative care, has been adopted in a General Assembly resolution titled “Recommendations regarding the identification of possible gaps in the protection of the human rights of older persons and how best to address them.”
Decision 14/1 notes that responses to the official questionnaire on gaps (shared widely by IAHPC):
"[…] have identified possible normative and implementation gaps in the protection of the human rights of older persons, inter alia,1 in areas related to equality and non-discrimination, violence, neglect and abuse, autonomy and independence, long-term and palliative care... [emphasis added]"
and that
"[…] many countries may not be sufficiently prepared to respond to the needs of the rapidly ageing population, including the need for preventive, curative, palliative and specialized care. [emphasis added]"
Now that the WG has identified the “needs” of ageing populations, including the need for palliative care, IAHPC members and advocates can prepare their countries to respond through education, policy development, and service delivery. The new UN language in the adopted decision is now “agreed,” meaning that advocates can propose it to craft national resolutions and policies. Argentina, Austria, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Slovakia, the Philippines, Türkiye, Northern Ireland, the UK, the USA, and Uruguay cosponsored resolution 78/324, which urges other UN bodies (including the Commission on Narcotic Drugs) to consider the recommendations in decision 14/1. I urge you to review the decision to become familiar with how these documents are crafted.
Advocacy works: just do it!
Send the text of decision 14/1 to your government department responsible for older persons, as well as to your ministry of health, highlighting the two instances where lack of palliative care is cited as a gap in the health care rights of older persons. Be sure to also suggest how your national association might help to fill that gap through national needs assessments, human resource education, funded service provision, and improved availability of essential palliative care medicines.
Longtime readers of our newsletter—as well as of eHospice and the EAPC blog—will remember the advocacy reports I have published on this topic since 2014. Inclusion of palliative care in the adopted decision is the fruit of years of concerted appearances at the WG in New York, many IAHPC side events on the topic of older persons and palliative care, and many interventions about the need for palliative care on the floor of the official sessions. Let's leverage this rising tide with another wave of palliative care advocacy.
Human rights, mental health & palliative care:
Help me by sending a few words on your practice
I am preparing a submission for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on mental health in palliative care, for practitioners as well as patients and caregivers, in response to the call for input in relation to Human Rights Council resolution 52/12 on mental health and human rights. The resolution asks the High Commissioner to organize a one-day consultation and prepare a comprehensive report on challenges and best ways to enable standards and policies to ensure that the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities—as well as current or potential users of mental health services—are upheld locally, nationally, and regionally. The report will also include suggestions for policy tools to adopt a human rights perspective in mental health care, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-eighth session in February 2025.
Please send me a couple of sentences or paragraphs by October 1, using experiences within your practice to illustrate mental health issues relevant to practitioners, patients, and caregivers that I can include in the IAHPC submission.
Technical consult on controlled medicines in Vienna
IAHPC Research and Academic Advisor Tania Pastrana and I will attend a Technical Consultation Meeting on "Diversion of Controlled Medicines" undertaken in the framework of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime program on “Access to controlled drugs for medical and scientific purposes while preventing diversion and non-medical use” to be held in Vienna in October. Watch for a report in a November issue of Pallinews.
White paper on PC in humanitarian emergencies
I am working with a PallChase drafting team on a white paper on the need for palliative care in humanitarian emergencies. My assignment is to draft the section on the legal and normative framework requiring UN member states and parties to the Geneva Convention to ensure its delivery. The prevailing humanitarian emergencies, including those caused by climate change, have added urgency to this task.
The Lancet recently published "A Manifesto on Improving Cancer Care in Conflict-Impacted Populations," contains one reference to palliative care, but is limited to persons with cancer. The IAHPC definition of palliative care is not prognosis specific: it includes all persons with serious health-related suffering.
Two free IAHPC webinars
'Spiritual Care in Serious Illness' on Sept. 21
The IAHPC and PallCHASE (Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies) will convene a webinar on September 21, 2024, the International Day of Peace, titled "Spiritual Care in Serious Illness: Cultivating a culture of peace."
This year is the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (resolution 53/243). The resolution defines a culture of peace as "a set of values, attitudes, traditions and modes of behavior and ways of life based on […] respect for life, ending of violence and promotion and practice of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation.”
The discussion will interest palliative care practitioners, patients, caregivers, and the public of all faiths and disciplines, including the non-affiliated. Follow IAHPC on social media and like and reshare our announcements on the webinar!
Register here and please share widely
The 90-minute webinar begins at: UTC 13:00, or 3p.m. CEST (Europe), 6:30 p.m. IST (India), 2 p.m. BST (UK), 8 a.m. EST (Jamaica), 7 a.m. CST (Mexico City), and 9 a.m. EDT (New York).
The panelists are:
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Katherine Pettus |
Dr. Dingle Spence |
Dr. Abhijit Dam |
Dr. Mhoira Leng |
Avtar Singh Cheema |
Support caregivers & care workers every day AND on October 29!
An IAHPC webinar discussing the state of care work worldwide is planned for October 29 to close out the month of celebrations around World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. WHA67/19, “the palliative care resolution,” notes "[…] the need for continuing education and adequate training for all hospital- and community-based health care providers and other caregivers, including nongovernmental organization workers and family members.”
Taking note of the urgent need to better support both family caregivers and care workers worldwide, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution in 2023 calling on member states and civil society organizations to observe an International Day of Care and Support “to raise awareness of the importance of care and support” and “the need to invest in a resilient and inclusive care economy, including the development of strong and resilient care and support systems.”
Caregiving aligns with IAHPC's vision of a world free from health-related suffering, and with our four pillars of work: education, advocacy, research, and knowledge dissemination. Read my blog on the 2023 UN declaration here.
Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement in Pallinews for details on speakers and how to register for this important webinar.
Plus: a pair of conferences
And finally (whew!) I get to be in two places at one time on October 19. I will be in Málaga, Spain, presenting in person at the XIV Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos (SECPAL) at a roundtable on community participation in palliative care. Then, I will be online at the First Emirates Palliative Care Conference, discussing (you guessed it) ¨Palliative Care Advocacy: A world free from health-related suffering.” Register here to attend both days of the UAE Conference virtually. There is a terrific lineup of speakers from all over the world.
1. Inter alia means "among other things."
Read more of this week's issue of Pallinews
Movie review
When You Die trilogy of films encourage conversations around death and dying. Reviewed by Dr. Michael Barbato.
Plus
Government decision nourishes hope for action to establish palliative care in Cameroon's hospitals.
What's New in the IAHPC Calendar.
Abstract submissions are now open for the 2025 Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network conference. The deadline is November 14, 2024.