October 10, 2009, humankind will commemorate the Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which will take place under the theme “Discovering your voice”. Its goal is to unite efforts for supporting of development of hospice and palliative care in the whole world.
The Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance is the organizer of commemoration of the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. National and regional organizations, which support the development of palliative care, are the members of the Alliance.
The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced a separate direction in medicine – palliative care — in 1982. According to international approaches, palliative care is a system of medical, social, and psychological approaches, whose purpose is to ensure maximum achievable quality of life for patients with incurable diseases and members of their families, by eliminating or reducing discords in life activity and other hard manifestations of diseases, pain, physical and mental sufferings.
Unfortunately, Ukraine’s healthcare system still cannot ensure accessibility of palliative care for most patients who need it. Material and technical basis of the majority of operating hospices and palliative care departments do not meet international standards.
During the last three years, the Public Health Program of the International Renaissance Foundation has been supporting initiatives of NGOs and state institutions in terms of development of palliative care in Ukraine.
November, 2008, for the first time in Ukraine, under the support of the IRF, Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Institute for Palliative and Hospice Care of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education named after P.L. Shupik, San Diego Institute for Palliative Care (U.S.A.) and the All-Ukrainian Association of Palliative Care NGO, a three-day training was conducted for medical specialists (doctors, nurses) who provide palliative care. Taking into account the insufficient number of medical specialists in this field, the training significantly contributed to enhancement of professional development of 30 specialists from different regions of Ukraine.
In 2010-2011, IRF support will be directed on creation and implementation of unified training programs on palliative care for medical staff of different levels, with involvement of leading medical and educational state institutions.
In the summer of 2009, for the first time in Ukraine, IRF announced an open competition for project proposals regarding development of training centers of palliative care for regional organizations, on whose basis doctors and nurses will be able to take training on basics of palliative care.
Under the support of IRF, the initiative of public organizations and of the Institute for Palliative and Hospice Care of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Coordination Council for Palliative and Hospice Care under the Ministry of Health of Ukraine was created, and the Concept for the Nationwide Program for Development of Palliative and Hospice Care in Ukraine was developed for the years of 2010-2014. The Coordination Council is an efficient mechanism for promotion of the idea of palliative care both on the state and regional levels; one of the main directions of activity is standardization and development of infrastructure for provision of palliative care in Ukraine. The priorities of the component “Palliative Care” of the Public Health Program of the IRF are fine tuning and submission for approval of the National Program on Development of Palliative and Hospice Care for 2010-2014, in cooperation with all corresponding ministries and public representatives.
Advocacy for access to quality and adequate anesthetization for patients on terminal stages is one of the main directions of operation of the IRF regarding palliative care. This issue is topical since modern Ukrainian medicine applies outdated methods of anesthetization, from which patients suffer in the first place.
More detailed information about the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, the organizational committee, partners, and about events, which took place in the past years, can be found on the site http://www.worldday.org/
Find out more about the Public Health Program of the International Renaissance Foundation at the link — http://irf.kiev.ua/en/programs/health.
Information of the Institute for Palliative and Hospice Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine was partly used in the text.
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Kseniya Shapoval-Deinega, International Palliative Care Initiative Coordinator tel: +380 (44) 461 97 09 | fax: +380 (44) 468 76 29 email: shapoval@irf.kiev.ua office: 46 Artema Street., Kyiv, Ukraine |
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