Dear readers,
October is Members’ Month and we are celebrating the support we receive from individuals and institutions around the world by giving away prizes in two categories: One to recognize loyalty among those current members who have kept their membership active for at least two consecutive years and one to those who bring and invite others to join. This edition of the newsletter includes the announcement and instructions on how to participate.
We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity and keep supporting IAHPC and our mission to promote and advance palliative care globally.
Saturday October 8th is the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, a great campaign coordinated by the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) with the support of the global palliative care community. The focus of this year’s World Day is: ‘Living and Dying in Pain: It Doesn’t Have to Happen’ to raise awareness about the lack of access to strong analgesics for patients who are suffering with severe pain. (If you haven’t read it already, do take a look at Dr. Liz Gwyther’s article in the September issue of the newsletter that explains this year’s theme). Many organizations throughout the world are planning celebrations to increase awareness among the lay people, governments and patients that palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and families, and that appropriate policies and funding mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure access to palliative care to those in need. More about this year’s event, the initiatives taking place around the world, photos and resources is available in the World Day website.
During this month IAHPC will be co-hosting with the Barbados Association for Palliative Care a workshop on the availability and rational use of opioids in the Caribbean with participants from 11 countries in the Region. The workshop is by invitation only and will be in Bridgeport, Barbados. We are very excited and look forward to working with all of them in a few days. In addition to the workshop, IAHPC is also supporting BAPC in its celebration of the World Hospice Palliative Care conference, open to the public, where several speakers will present on issues related to palliative care policy, medicines and delivery of care. Look for our reports and photos next month!
The IAHPC Traveling Scholarship (TS) program is designed to provide support to palliative care workers from middle- and low-income countries who wish to attend a meeting, conference, seminar, or enroll in a university program, or in any other educational activity, to improve their knowledge and skills. From January through August 2016, the IAHPC received 137 TS applications. Due to financial constraints, we were able to fund only 62 applications or 45 percent of the applications received. This means that 75 palliative care workers were left without the training they need to improve care provision for patients and their families.
We recently launched a campaign to raise funds for our TS program through the Global Giving platform. The goal of this campaign is to raise $50,000 allowing the IAHPC to double its size. To contribute to this campaign, please visit the Global Giving website.
After some careful consideration and discussion, we have dropped the three-year membership option from the different options we offer to those who wish to join IAHPC. We still offer the same membership scaled fees, based on the country’s income for one year and with additional discounts for two years. We hope that you will take this opportunity to join the organization and continue supporting our work.
Until next month,
Lukas Radbruch, MD
Chair Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
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