Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance

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Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA)
Formation2008 [1]
TypeImplementing NGO [1]
HeadquartersLondon, [2] United Kingdom [1]
Membership
Over 200 affiliate organizations [1] representing over 90 countries [3]
Key people

The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance or WHPCA (formerly known as the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance or WPCA) is an international non-governmental organization based in the United Kingdom. In official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHPCA works in conjunction with over 200 regional institutions and national partners for the global development of palliative care and advancement of pain relief. It advocates for changes in public policy on accessibility of pain relief in end-of-life care and integration of palliative care into national health agendas. [1] [5] In 2014 it released the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life in a joint publication with the WHO.

Contents

History

The WHPCA was founded in 2008 with its headquarters located in the United Kingdom. [1] The non-governmental organization (NGO) is registered as a charity in England and Wales. [6] WHPCA is an implementing NGO affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO) promoting change in public policies for hospice and palliative care on a global, national, and regional scale. [1] The organization has also been recognized as having official relations with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. [6] Clinical health psychologist and co-founder Stephen Connor serves as the executive director. [3]

The WHPCA works in conjunction with other international organizations and national entities. For instance, it collaborated with the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) for presenting materials to an international palliative care conference in 2016 hosted by the Uganda Ministry of Health. [7] WHPCA has partnered with organizations such as the Centre for Palliative Care in Bangladesh (established by the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University [BSMMU] in 2011) to improve the quality of end-of-life care for elderly and pediatric patients suffering from terminal diseases. [8] With a grant provided by UK Aid, WHPCA partnered with the Department of Palliative Medicine at BSMMU in 2018–2019 to provide palliative care to impoverished patients of Narayanganj District, Bangladesh, treating over 100 patients and training 27 nurses and 17 doctors in administering palliative care. [9]

Priorities and projects

Along with its international partners, the WHPCA seeks to provide pain relief to patients suffering chronic illnesses. The organization works to eliminate the stigma surrounding pain relief by challenging certain national public policies, especially in developing countries where prescribed opioid use is controversial due to drug addiction. [10] One of the other major priorities of the organization is to make quality palliative care more affordable. [6] It has also managed the annual World Hospice and Palliative Care Day to raise awareness about its initiatives. [6]

In 2014 the WHPCA and WHO produced a joint publication, the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, edited by Stephen Connor and Maria Cecilia Sepulveda Bermedo, a senior adviser on chronic diseases prevention and management for the WHO. [5] It was initiated as part of the WHO's Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases for 2013–2020. The study found that roughly 20 million people around the globe, 6% of whom were children, required end-of-life palliative care, with a majority of those in developing countries lacking basic necessities such as opioid medication for pain relief. [5]

Published material

See also

Related Research Articles

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex illness. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist; most notably, the World Health Organization describes palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual." In the past, palliative care was a disease specific approach, but today the World Health Organization takes a more broad approach, that the principles of palliative care should be applied as early as possible to any chronic and ultimately fatal illness.

In medicine, specifically in end-of-life care, palliative sedation is the palliative practice of relieving distress in a terminally ill person in the last hours or days of a dying person's life, usually by means of a continuous intravenous or subcutaneous infusion of a sedative drug, or by means of a specialized catheter designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications via the rectal route.

Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma. In popular use, it indicates a disease that will progress until death with near absolute certainty, regardless of treatment. A patient who has such an illness may be referred to as a terminal patient, terminally ill or simply terminal. There is no standardized life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal, although it is generally months or less. Life expectancy for terminal patients is a rough estimate given by the physician based on previous data and does not always reflect true longevity. An illness which is lifelong but not fatal is a chronic condition.

Hospice Palliative Care Ontario (HPCO) is an organization whose members provide end-of-life palliative care to terminal patients in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is the result of an April 2011 merger of the Hospice Association of Ontario (HOA) and the Ontario Palliative Care Association (OPCA). It is one of twelve primary care practitioner units participating in the development of advance care planning in Canada led by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association and partly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Ira Byock American physician and author

Ira Robert Byock is an American physician, author, and advocate for palliative care. He is founder and chief medical officer of the Providence St. Joseph Health Institute for Human Caring in Torrance, California, and holds appointments as active emeritus professor of medicine and professor of community health and family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He was director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, from 2003–14, and associate director for patient and family-centered care at the affiliated Norris-Cotton Cancer Center.

End-of-life care (EoLC) refers to health care for a person with a terminal condition that has become advanced, progressive, and/or incurable.

The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was a care pathway in the United Kingdom covering palliative care options for patients in the final days or hours of life. It was developed to help doctors and nurses provide quality end-of-life care, to transfer quality end-of-life care from the hospice to hospital setting. The LCP is no longer in routine use after public misconceptions about its nature, alternative pathways are now in place to ensure patients are able to have dignity in their final hours of life. Hospitals were also provided cash incentives to achieve targets for the number of patients placed on the LCP.

Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care, founded in 1981, is one of the oldest and largest non-profit hospice and palliative care providers in Illinois.

The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1986. It is a continuation of the PRN Forum, a bimonthly journal published from 1982 to 1985. It is the official journal of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It was formally the official journal of the United States Cancer Pain Relief Committee. The journal covers clinical research related to "the relief of illness burden among patients afflicted with serious or life-threatening illness".

American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) is a professional organization for physicians specializing in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership is open to all health care providers committed to improving the care of patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses. AAHPM has more than 5,200 members; 82 percent are physicians, 12 percent are nurses or other health care providers and 6 percent are residents or students.

Hospice care in the United States

Hospice care in the United States is a type and philosophy of end-of-life care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature. The concept of hospice as a place to treat the incurably ill has been evolving since the 11th century. Hospice care was introduced to the United States in the 1970s in response to the work of Cicely Saunders in the United Kingdom. This part of health care has expanded as people face a variety of issues with terminal illness. In the United States, it is distinguished by extensive use of volunteers and a greater emphasis on the patient's psychological needs in coming to terms with dying.

Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.

Hospice and palliative medicine is a formal subspecialty of medicine in the United States that focuses on symptom management, relief of suffering and end-of-life care.

African Palliative Care Association (APCA) is a pan-African non-governmental organization (NGO) working to promote and support the integration of palliative care into health systems across Africa. APCA has appeared on the BBC World Service, The Guardian and across regional and national African press advocating for better palliative care provision.

Anne Merriman, MBE, MCommH, FRCPI, FRCP is a British doctor, known for her pioneering work and influential research into palliative care in developing countries in Africa. She has campaigned to make affordable oral morphine widely available.

The Macy Catheter is a specialized catheter designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications via the rectal route. The catheter was developed to make rectal access more practical and provide a way to deliver and retain liquid formulations in the distal rectum so that health practitioners can leverage the established benefits of rectal administration. Patients often need medication when the oral route is compromised, and the Macy Catheter provides an alternative for those medications that can be prescribed per rectum. The Macy Catheter is of particular relevance during the end of life, when it can help patients to remain comfortable in their home.

Pallium India is a national registered charitable trust formed in 2003 aimed at providing quality palliative care and effective pain relief for patients in India. Dr. M. R. Rajagopal is the founder and chairman of Pallium India. Pallium India works in collaboration with several national and international organisations to improve the accessibility and affordability of pain relief drugs (opioids) and other low-cost medicines, to ensure the availability of palliative care services in India and to improve the quality of palliative care services provided by the healthcare and allied health care professionals. In February 2016, Pallium India was accredited by Social Justice Department of Government of Kerala.

M. R. Rajagopal

M. R. Rajagopal is an Indian palliative care physician. He is the founder chairman of Pallium India, a palliative care non-governmental organisation based in Kerala, India. He is often referred to as the 'father of palliative care in India' in honour of his significant contribution to the palliative care scene in India. In 2018, the Indian Government honored Dr M. R. Rajagopal with the Padma Shri award.

Stephen Connor (psychologist)

Stephen Robert Connor is a licensed clinical health psychologist, researcher, author, and palliative care consultant. He is the executive director of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), formerly called the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). From 1998 to 2008 he served as Vice President of Research and Development at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). He has promoted global initiatives for hospice and end-of-life care programs through the World Health Assembly. He has also addressed the UN General Assembly on the need for greater pain management in palliative care.

Lucy Finch is a palliative nurse who has worked in several African countries and founded a hospice in Malawi – Ndi Moyo – "the place giving life".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance" (WHPCA). Devex.com. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  2. ↑ https://www.thewhpca.org/about-us-3 "About us"]. WHPCA.org. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  3. 1 2 Dr Stephen Connor, Executive Director, Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance". World Health Organization. Accessed 11 August 2019.
  4. ↑ "Stephen R. Connor PhD, Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance" (2013). National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC.org). Accessed 21 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Chestnov, Oleg (January 2014). "Forward", in Connor, Stephen and Sepulveda Bermedo, Maria Cecilia (editors), Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance and World Health Organization, p. 3. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Connor, Stephen Robert, Gwyther, Elizabeth (February 2018) [Epub 8 August 2017]. "The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance," in Journal of Pain and Symptom Management , 55 (2S): S112-S116. PMID: 28797861 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2017.03.020. PubMed.gov. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  7. ↑ Okoth, Cecilia (14 August 2016). "Uganda to host international conference on palliative care". New Vision. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  8. ↑ Jahan, Nilima (6 October 2017). "Going gently into that good night: a look into what palliative care is available for those with life-limiting illnesses in Bangladesh". The Daily Star. Accessed 21 September 2019.
  9. ↑ 5 April 2019. "How the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance is improving palliative care in Bangladesh." UK Aid Direct (Ukaiddirect.org). Accessed 21 September 2019.
  10. ↑ Flanagan, Holli (20 March 2019). "Providing Comfort: Initiating Palliative Care in Developing Countries". Borgen Magazine. Accessed 21 September 2019.
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