This World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (9 October 2010), the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) is highlighting how building partnerships and sharing the care can improve the quality of life for even the most vulnerable and marginalised people living with a life-limiting or terminal illness.

While more than 100 million patients and caregivers worldwide need palliative care every year, less than 8% actually receive it. Therefore, the WPCA is encouraging more organisations to step out and work with their neighbours to find ways to reach marginalised and vulnerable groups who rarely have access to palliative care.

'Sharing the care', a report published today by the WPCA, looks at innovative examples of where collaborative working is already making a huge difference. From supporting transvestites and transgenders in Indonesia, to prisoners in South Africa, to injecting drug users in the Ukraine - the report shows how by working in partnership, some of the most hard to reach groups can now access the vital care that they need to manage their physical, psychosocial, spiritual and social problems at the end of life.

David Praill, co-chair of the WPCA, from the UK's Help the Hospices, explains:

"Palliative care developed as a response to suffering. The organisation and provision of palliative care has to be adapted to the country, culture and context if the needs of the person requiring care and their caregivers are to be met.

"As we strive to make palliative care for all a reality, let's do it through a philosophy of sharing and partnership so that together we can 'share the care'. This is the only way that palliative care services will be able to reach everyone in need."

To mark World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, thousands of people in around 80 countries will be coming together today at more than 1,000 events to celebrate, support and speak up about hospice and palliative care.

Activities around the world include a soccer match in Uganda with palliative care providers and the ministry of health, media roundtables in Malawi, social actions in the streets of Kherson in the Ukraine and a carnival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

To find out more about World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2010 visit here.

Notes

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2010

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (9 October 2010) is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The secretariat for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is provided by Help the Hospices, the leading charity supporting hospice care throughout the UK.

Source:
Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance