Palliative care for older people - World Health Organization ...

Box 4.2. An interdisciplinary task force on palliative care in UkraineProgress has already been made on the development of hospices in Ukraine, and there are plans to developregional and national programmes, palliative care registers and additional training for doctors and nurses.Access to hospices is not based on prognosis or diagnosis, and they also care for long-stay older people. Aninterdisciplinary task force, including representatives from both government and nongovernmental organizations,has been created in Ukraine. It aims to raise public awareness of palliative care throughout society, to createpatient-centred health care and to develop palliative care legislation. There have been consultations withpatients and the general public along with educational events, such as press conferences and films and radiobroadcasts about patients’ rights and safety. Patient leader groups and information and advisory services havebeen established. The task force has adopted an integrated approach towards planning and delivering palliativecare by reaching out to regions in Ukraine, religious denominations and members of society. Collaboration is inplace with other European countries to facilitate the exchange of experience in palliative care. Partners includeFrance, Poland, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. The Ukrainian interdisciplinary task force shows thatpalliative care can be integrated into a national health care system (16).Source: personal communication, Viktor Serdiuk, All-Ukrainian Council for Patients’ Rights and Safety.Box 4.3. Humanists Union, a palliative care association in Tbilisi, GeorgiaPalliative care is a fairly new but rapidly developing discipline within the health care system in Georgia. Twonongovernmental organizations, the Cancer Prevention Centre and Humanists’ Union (17), coordinate palliativecare services. Since palliative care emerged in public discussions in 1995, the traditional focus on cancer via theCancer Prevention Centre has gradually shifted to other incurable diseases (with services currently providedfor inpatient care for people with cancer and HIV and for older people in the framework of the GeorgianHome Care Coalition); more educational programmes, enhanced awareness about symptom control and painmanagement and elaboration of the state policy on drug availability. Work is underway to create a nationalprogramme for palliative care. The state budget covers 70% of the cost of services.One main goal of the Humanists Union is to promote the development of a palliative care system and theimplementation of internationally approved bioethical standards to underpin the creation and success of amodern palliative care service in Georgia. The Association has partners, collaborators and supporters from a widerange of government and nongovernmental organizations and international institutions, including Georgia’sMinistry of Health, Labour and Social Affairs, the Parliament of Georgia, Tbilisi State Medical University, NationalSociety of the Red Cross, the mass media, San Diego Hospice, the Hungarian Palliative Care Association and theHospice Foundation.Significant steps have been taken to raise the awareness and standards of palliative care: developingeducational material (handbooks on palliative care) for medical students; initiating palliative care as a universitydiscipline; practical training of health care staff members; and creating a mobile team (home-based hospice)providing palliative care to people with incurable diseases at home.Sources: personal communications, Tamari Rukhadze, Humanists’ Union and Ioseb Abesadze, Cancer Prevention Centre, Tbilisi, Georgia.16