Travel date: September 17, 2017
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 5th International Public Health & Palliative Care Conference
Origin: Beijing, China / Destination: Ottawa, Canada
I am very pleased to attend the 5th International Public Health and Palliative Care Conference on September 17-20, 2017 in Ottawa, Canada. The event brought together public health and palliative care/end-of-life care professionals from Canada and around the world to share ideas and experiences. I have greatly benefited from the wide variety of speakers, workshops and presentations for the conference, and surely will put what I have learned into own practice with a great inspiration.
I hope to share my learning and thinking from the wonderful conference as following: 1) Canadian Traditions and Recent Rapid Development in Palliative Care. Dr. Balfour Mount, Canada’s “father of palliative care” initiated the phase “ Palliative Care” to describe the way a caring society can and should surround its people with care when their health becomes fragile. Canada has a long history of such care across the land, as their first nations people have demonstrated for countless generations. During the conference, the Canadian professionals shared their health – promoting palliative care accomplishments and successes in recent years with world. In order to build Compassionate Communities Canada has carried out many palliative care programs rooted in individual, family, community and cultures ,and their successes and experience will inspire other countries in improvement to quality palliative care and end-of-life care services. I got a deeper understanding of palliative care as public health and strong connections developed through the conference. I also will continue to involve in and advance this great movement in future. 2) Strengthening Sustainable Community Partnerships Action in the UK; Compassionate Communities go “ Mainstream” . In the UK, “communities are prepared to help” has been included as one of six ambitions for end-of life-care in the Ambitions Framework for End of Life 2015-2020 published by NHS England. Embedding community development into health policy gives incentives to health and social care organizations to participate in building community resource. This framework may assist in other countries including China developing national and local strategies in palliative care and end-of-life care. 3) Learning from and with the Global Attendees and Establishing Friendships and Connections. The happiest thing to me was to meet other participates around the world and made many good friends with them as well as learning from the presentations and workshops planned for the conference. During the conference I luckily got a prize draw, a loved “The Pallium Palliative Pocketbook” (Pallium Canada, A peer-reviewed, referenced resource, the Second Edition). I will try to get permission of its copyright and translate it into Chinese and benefit millions of Chinese palliative patients in future (See the photo with Denise Marshall, Chair of Conference). I greatly appreciate Katherine Murray, Life& Death Matters, Author, for her gift: book “Essentials in Hospice and Palliative Care: A Practical Resource for Every Nurse”. We also will consider carefully and possibly ask the copyright permission translated it into Chinese language( See the photo with Katherine). In addition, Prof. John Rosenberg, Australia keeps in touch with me and discusses the collaboration (see photo with Prof.John Rosenberg). During the conference, several recipients of IAHPC traveling scholarships from developing countries got together and had a happy moment (see group photo with recipients of scholarships). These cherished assistance and friendships have deeply moved me and will really benefit me, my institution and our country. 4) China has 1.38 billion population in 2016, with 220 millions aged over 60 years in 2015. Our country is confronting with various problems and many challengers in palliative care and end-of-life care. The most important, national public health policies and medical management guidelines in the field should be established the more the better. Furthermore, I really aspire that a 5-10 year national strategy for promotion of palliative care and end-of-life care should be developed as soon as possible in China. Future, I will try my best to do more. We still have a long way to go. Come on, China !
I hope that IAHPC can help more and more palliative care professionals in developing countries or called low-upper income countries participate in worldwide conferences, seminars and training. As I did not have other financial support for attending the conference the traveling scholarship was not enough to cover my expense for the conference ,especially such as registration fee and hotel, and so it made a arduous efforts to attend. Anyway, I finally succeeded. In addition, we are eager for involving in international cooperative programs sponsored by IAHPC and other important international organizations. I want to thank IAHPC from the bottom of my heart for supporting the traveling scholarship to attend the IPHPC2017. I am so pride of being a valuable and fruitful member of IAHPC!
No Comment