Essential and Expanded Palliative Care Packages for Adults and Children

The Essential and Expanded Palliative Care Packages for Adults and Children are a result of the Global Access to Palliative Care Latin America (GAP - LA) Project anchored at the Usher Institute / University of Edinburgh. 

The IAHPC coordinated Work Stream 1, one of six work streams in the GAP - LA 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 Medical Research Council grant anchored at the Usher Institute in the University of Edinburgh, the University partnered with nine institutions and civil society organizations in the Americas to design, develop and implement the GAP - LA project: Fundación Tómatelo a Pecho and FUNSALUD (Mexico), FUNSALUD (Mexico), Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas - University of Miami (USA), 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) and 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

Essential Package Expanded Package

Children

Essential Paediatric Package Expanded Paediatric Package

Acknowledgments

The GAP project was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number MR/V021400/1]

We are very grateful to the following individuals and organizations:

Adult: Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), African Palliative Care Association (APCA), Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN), Caribbean Palliative Care Association (CARIPALCA), European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), Latin American Association of Palliative Care (ALCP).

Pediatric: The International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) 

Read the article

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