Essential and Expanded Palliative Care Packages for Adults and Children
The Essential and Expanded Palliative Care Packages for Adults and Children is a result of the Global Access to Palliative Care (GAP) Project anchored at the Usher Institute / University of Edinburgh.
The IAHPC coordinated Work Stream 1, one of six work streams in the GAP project. The methods, results and recommendations were published in The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. The article is the result of a global consensus process, aimed at expanding access to palliative care and pain relief to reduce serious health-related suffering.
Supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council Grant the University of Edinburgh, partnered with seven institutions and civil society organizations in the Americas to design, develop and implement the GAP project:
- Fundación Tómatelo a Pecho and FUNSALUD (Mexico)
- Latin American Association for Palliative Care (ALCP)
- PALIAMED (El Salvador)
- Purdue University (USA)
- PROESA–ICESI (Colombia)
- The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC)
- Universidad Técnica de Loja (Ecuador)
- University of Miami (USA)
Background
In 2018 the Lancet Commission developed the Essential Package for Palliative Care and Pain Relief (LEP), a minimum set of evidence-based interventions and services intended for implementation across all levels of healthcare. Although, the LEP was initially designed to be applied across the lifespan for adults and children, a version specifically designed for children - the Essential Package of Pediatric Palliative Care and Symptom Relief - was published in that same year by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Objective and Method
The objective of Work Stream 1 was to identify the components of essential and expanded packages for pain relief and palliative care for both adults and children. To achieve this, the IAHPC conducted a multi-stage, global, consensus-driven Delphi study which included inputs from over 180 experts across all WHO regions and income level.
Read and download the packages
Adults:
Children