Katherine I. Pettus
LEAD2 Goal: Stimulate integration of palliative care into health systems
The IAHPC advocacy program is proud to sponsor a second Leadership and Advocacy Development (LEAD) cohort—LEAD2, which will run from 2025-2027. Seven national palliative care associations will receive seed grants for projects to advance the integration of palliative care into national health systems.
LEAD2 grantees will focus on integrating essential and expanded palliative care packages for children and adults into national health systems. These packages are the first part of a Global Access to Palliative Care Project, or GAP.
The seven LEAD2 grantees—who represent the national associations of Chile, El Salvador, Ghana, Lebanon, Nepal, North Macedonia, and the Philippines—have taken an IAHPC-Purdue-PROESA pilot course on integrating the essential and expanded packages into health systems. The course will be available to IAHPC members in 2026.
Grantee focal points will launch their projects in a closed online meeting on October 16, and present their results in a public IAHPC webinar at the end of the project, in 2027. The project includes intensive mentoring and supervision by palliative care leaders associated with the IAHPC. Participants will not only implement their national associations’ aspirations to integrate palliative care into their health systems, they will learn how to design SMART [specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound] goals and effective programs on a small budget.
September is Alzheimer’s month!
As part of its non-state actor collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the IAHPC is hosting two webinars on palliative care for persons with dementia and their caregivers.
The first, on September 18, for members only, will cover clinical management of persons with dementia. The panelists are Dr. Mataa Moses Mataa, a palliative care doctor from Zambia [read his opinion piece "A Zambian Practitioner's View of a Western Dementia Dilemma"] and Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute; and Dr. Michael Gloth, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a clinical professor of medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine, and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland. Register for the webinar.
The second webinar, on October 30, is open access and will cover the WHO iSupport program for caregivers. The webinar is scheduled to mark the International Day of Care and Support. More on iSupport in my next Pallinews column, on October 9!
Asking faith leaders to walk the talk
Following on from our World Health Assembly side event in May, the IAHPC advocacy program is forming an Interfaith Advocacy Committee to educate faith leaders from the community level up about how palliative care can benefit their congregations. You can read my blog on why this development is necessary, and look for my report on the first steering committee meeting, scheduled for September 16, in the October 9 issue of Pallinews.
CND session on controlled medicines
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the UN body that supervises the application of international drug control treaties (which include some essential palliative care medicines, such as morphine) is holding Thematic Sessions from September 30 to October 2 to review challenges that member states are encountering in implementing its 2019 Ministerial Declaration: "Strengthening our actions at the national, regional and international levels to accelerate the implementation of our joint commitments to address and counter the world drug problem."
The three International Drug Control Conventions have two central goals: ensuring access to essential narcotic and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes, such as palliative care and pain relief, while preventing their misuse and diversion into illicit channels.
I will be attending the sessions in person, and IAHPC Board Member Dr. Ebtesam Ahmed will serve as an online panelist on the morning of October 2, presenting on the increasingly challenging problem of adequately treating palliative care patients’ pain and symptoms in the restrictive regulatory atmosphere of the United States. The session will conclude with a one-day workshop—sponsored by the government of Belgium, the African Union, and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime—on how to improve affordable availability of controlled medicines in Africa. Look for my report in the October 9 issue of Pallinews.
IAHPC members advocate around the world!
IAHPC members and board members are everywhere: at palliative care conferences, such as the 8th International African Palliative Care Congress in Botswana, where Ms. Stella Rithara will present her research and staff the IAHPC table; and at the 2025 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference in Brisbane, where Dr. Maria Cigolini will represent IAHPC and staff our booth along with IAHPC Research Advisor Dr. Tania Pastrana. The IAHPC is supporting members of national associations to attend both conferences, so look for scholars’ reports in upcoming issues of Pallinews. Tania and Dr. Hibah Osman will also represent the IAHPC when WHO palliative care partners gather in Dubai, to share the work we are doing and learn from colleagues from every WHO region.
Ms. Belinda Chan, chief executive officer of the Fiji Cancer Society, will represent IAHPC and the Union for International Cancer Control at the 76th regional meeting of the Western Pacific Region, being held in Fiji this year. Longtime IAHPC member and advocate Ms. Irena Laska from Albania will represent us in Copenhagen at the 76th regional meeting of the WHO European region. Drs. Afsan Bhadelia of Purdue University and IAHPC Board Member Dr. Natalie Greaves of the University of West Indies will represent the IAHPC at the 77th Session of the Regional Committee of WHO for the Americas as September moves into October.
Our heartfelt thanks to those dedicated members who pay their own way or find institutional support for their travel and per diem at these important meetings, where technical and normative documents relevant to palliative care are debated and disseminated for the benefit of patients everywhere.