World Hospice And Palliative Care Day, UK

Main Category: Palliative Care / Hospice Care
Article Date: 23 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Events planned in at least 70 countries around the world - Thousands of people around the world will be staging concerts and other events to raise awareness and fundraise for hospice and palliative care services locally, nationally and internationally to mark this annual global event.

Hospice and palliative care improves the quality of life of patients affected by life-threatening illness such as cancer and AIDS and their families, by preventing and relieving suffering through pain and symptom relief, emotional, practical and spiritual support.

The theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day this year is Hospice and Palliative Care: a Human Right, highlighting that without access to the care they need, people suffer horrific and unacceptable levels of distress that amount to a violation of their human rights.

Many different international, national and local fundraising and awareness-raising events are planned, including the publication of a book about palliative care as a human right, sponsored walks, exhibitions, celebrations, rallies and professional conferences.

The first ever World Hospice and Palliative Care Day took place in October 2005 with more than 1,100 events taking place in 74 countries. It was launched by HRH Princess Anne in London, and supported by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who described it as "an important global event". In 2006, Bono and Sir Elton John marked the event by expressing their support for hospice care, and in 2007 Dame Judi Dench added her voice to the campaign.

To find out more and get involved in World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2008, visit http://www.worldday.org, or email worldday@helpthehospices.org.uk.

Notes

Palliative care, which is the kind of care given in hospices as well as some other settings, improves the quality of life of patients and their families. It aims to provide the best possible care for people living with and dying from a terminal illness and helps prevent and relieve suffering through expert pain and symptom relief as well as through practical help, emotional and spiritual support.

Half of the world's 234 countries have no palliative care services available to their populations and one third have yet to take the first steps in planning to build service capacity.

In those countries where hospice and palliative care services are present, provision is mostly localised, with only 15% of countries having achieved a measure of integration with mainstream healthcare service providers.

There are currently six million cancer deaths and over 10 million new cases of cancer every year, rising to 15 million by 2020.

It is estimated that 100 million people could benefit from basic palliative care every year. This number is made up of 33 million people dying (60% of the total number dying in the world each year) and their 66 million family members, companions or carers (based on a conservative estimate of two people giving care and support for every person that dies). The actual number of people that receive palliative care is far lower. Although Sub-Saharan Africa has twice as many deaths per 1000 head of population annually as North America, it has only 1.5% of global palliative care resources compared to 55% in North America.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and has been developed by the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (a network of national hospice and palliative care organizations) and other global partners. Details of members of the World Day organising group can be found at http://www.worldday.org/partners.asp.

The secretariat for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is provided by Help the Hospices, the UK charity for the hospice movement, which supports over 220 local hospices in their vital work on the front line of caring for people who face the end of life. Hospices provide a wide range of care, from in-patient beds to day care or care for people in their own homes. The UK government contributes an average of 31% of running costs for adult hospices in England and 15% for children's (note: based on latest figures available) - the rest has to be obtained through charitable fundraising. (Note: health services are funded separately by the devolved government in each UK nation.)

Help the Hospices

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