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Short Film 50 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing affect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world.
In “Spread The Word” we discover the importance of advocacy is raising the pressing issue of access to essential pain medicines and palliative care services around the world.
“Advocacy today I feel is the key,” states Dr MR Rajagopal (India). “True, we need education for the professionals, we need to overcome the regulatory barriers to opioid availability, but though so many people have been trying for so many years in the developing world, there has been so little progress because we have not been able to project it as an urgent need. We have not been able to reach out to the common man because if the decent people had raised their voices the policy-makers and law-makers would have sat up and listened. I do believe that advocacy is the key.”
“Universal access to pain and symptom control, the relief of suffering around the globe, is achievable,” affirms Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA).
“Palliative care is not a big ask,” continues Dr Liz Gwyther (South Africa). “The main thing is awareness and education.”
“Getting people to care about it is the greatest challenge,” reflects Dr Meg O’Brien (USA). “Once we solve that a lot of things will fall into place.”
“An estimated five billion people alive in the world today in countries around this world have limited or no access to controlled medicines including opioid analgesics,” reports Dr John Seffrin (USA). “It isn’t easy but this is a fixable problem.”
“Until the politicians understand that the public are equally concerned, if not more concerned, about access to pain relief as they are about illicit drug use, we won’t get very far,” observes Professor David Hill (Australia).
“The fact that pain causes great suffering but that it can generally be treated with effective and often inexpensive medications, that makes the failure to provide pain treatment a violation of human rights,” reports Diederik Lohman.
Featuring: Dr MR Rajagopal (India), Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA), Dr Liz Gwyther (South Africa), Dr Meg O’Brien (USA), Dr John Seffrin (USA), Professor David Hill (Australia), Dr Kathleen Foley (USA), Diederik Lohman (The Netherlands), Dr Jim Cleary (Australia), Doug Ulman (USA).
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An amazing milestone…
“Spread the Word” is the the 50th, and final, short film in the LIFE Before Death series.
We’d like to congratulate Mike Hill, the team at Moonshine Movies, Lien Foundation, International Association for the Study of Pain, The Mayday Fund, the Union for International Cancer Control and The Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice on delivering this important work to the World.
If you’ve missed previous episodes, catch up on the LIFE Before Death website…
BUY THE DVD NOW!
HOST A SCREENING! Why not organise a screening in your community? GET MORE INFORMATION HERE…
BUY the DVD!
Short Film 49 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing affect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world.
In “Why We Care”we explore the rewards and calling that draws health professionals into the area of palliative care.
“Over the last three or four decades that we’ve being doing palliative care, I can’t tell you the number of people that, twenty years after they’ve left the team say; ‘You know the time I spent on the service was the best time of my life,” reflects Dr Balfour Mount (Canada).
“Death is a natural form of the human being,” continues Dr Andrew Young (China). “We Chinese celebrate birthday but we regret the day of death, or the dying patient. It’s wrong, I think.”
“When people usually hear that phase ‘death and dying’, it frames it as loss, as diminution, as an ending,” observes Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA). “In contrast, the lived experience, what I get to routinely see if treating patients is growth and development. People become more of who they are. They discover new features of what it means to be alive.”
“That’s one of the paradoxes,” concludes Dr Mount. “People say; ‘What do you do?’ And I say; ‘Palliative care’. And they blanch and they think; ‘Well that must be a really depressing thing to do’. They can’t believe it when you say; ‘In fact, it’s not depressing at all’. The reason it’s not depressing is because of how much you can help at so little cost.”
Featuring: Dr Balfour Mount (Canada), Dr Andrew Young (China), Dr David Morrison (Canada), Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA), Dr Shannon Moore (USA), Dr Manuel Borod (Canada), Dr MR Rajagopal (India), Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell (Uganda).
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If you’ve missed previous episodes, catch up on the LIFE Before Death website…
BUY THE DVD NOW!
HOST A SCREENING!
The LIFE Before Death feature film was premiered on 1 February 2012 in Singapore.
Why not organise a screening in your community? GET MORE INFORMATION HERE…
Lisa Krieger, SJ Mercury News reporter, and Dr. Jerina Kapoor, chair of Pallium India-USA
Pallium India-USA has a mission to help community members to learn about advance healthcare planning. What better opportunity to educate and spread the word than National Healthcare Decisions Day, a national effort to make early planning a part of the national conversation?
On Apr 22, 2012, the organization, which is the USA arm of Pallium India, gave a presentation at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California. The event drew over 100 attendees, and featured experts in the healthcare field as well as journalist Lisa Krieger, who has done a great deal to make healthcare decisions a talked about topic.
Dr. Jerina Kapoor, Founder and President of Pallium India-USA spoke to the large and involved audience about the crucial work that is being done in India to bring palliative care to all those who need it there. The local goals of the organization, said Dr. Kapoor, are to spread awareness of Advance Healthcare Directives, and to work towards culturally sensitive hospice volunteerships to serve the community of Indians living in the USA.
After showing a powerful video clip, Dr. Kapoor spoke about the importance of putting down on paper a well thought out Advance Healthcare Directive (AHCD). This helps avoid burdening one’s family with having to make decisions in crisis.
“The greatest gift you can give to your children is an Advance Healthcare Directive,” she said. “The time to take care of this is now when we are well and thinking clearly.”
Lisa Krieger from the San Jose Mercury News spoke to the audience about her personal experience of her father’s recent suffering and death. She stressed that when a family member is seriously ill, things happen so fast and stress is so great that one has lost the opportunity to have an AHCD. Krieger wrote an article about this which led to a series, “The Cost of Dying.” (See our post on the Mercury News coverage.)
Other speakers at the event included Dr. Raji Ayyar, an oncologist. Dr. Ayyar spoke about how one can do AHCD planning along with living and exercising well. In addition, Dr. Sulochana Lulla introduced the audience to hospice and palliative care, while Zarina Kaji, a registered nurse spoke about the Pallium India-USA hospice program.
Many Pallium India-USA members have received high quality training in this field and are available to provide culturally sensitive care as part of local hospice teams.
As a final high note for the event, the organization took part in the annual Sevathon torch lighting ceremony. As part of this ceremony the India Community Center passed the torch to Pallium India-USA. The Sevathon event itself will take place July 15 at Baylands Park, Sunnyvale, California, USA.
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Short Film 48 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing affect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world.
In “Going Out in Style” we discover how much can be achieved toward the end of life.
“At work we do at the hospice, every life is precious and sacred,” explains Irene Chan (Singapore). “Despite the limitations, a lot can be achieved during this period of time. The role of the hospice is to help patients and their families to reach that potential. It is a privilege to witness the courage, love and strength to rise above the occasion that our patients and families have shown us. I think that’s the greatest gift to us.”
“Hospice care is a very holistic way of approaching the person,” reflects Dr Yew Seng Tan (Singapore). “That means we consider the other domains of care such as the psychological, social, emotion and spiritual aspects of care. We include as a matter of principle the family.”
“For someone who’s facing end of life issues, really if we were to focus on death — there is really only one type of death — there’s nothing much we can do about death. But if we are to focus on life — that’s powerful.”
Featuring: Irene Chan (Singapore), Dr Yew Seng Tan (Singapore), Soon Ai Heng (Singapore), Lucy (Singapore), Yang (Singapore).
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If you’ve missed previous episodes, catch up on the LIFE Before Death website…
BUY THE DVD NOW!
HOST A SCREENING!
The LIFE Before Death feature film was premiered on 1 February 2012 in Singapore.
Why not organise a screening in your community? GET MORE INFORMATION HERE…
The Kids Collective (Kuttikkoottam) is formed of more than 150 children whose education Pallium India supports.
They are all children from families where the breadwinner died or is paralyzed; they did not have a lot of brightness in their lives.
Some of our volunteers – Brigadier Oommen, Rema Ramparasad, Leela Devi, Mr Sen and others – felt that they need more than books and school fees and thus was born the Kids’ Collective.
During three days of the summer vacation, 37 of the kids got together for a summer camp where they could learn and play and have a bit of fun. Two days in JMM Center and one day of outing to the zoo and planetarium.
And what amazing talents they displayed! Painters, writers, public speakers – the group had them all. They certainly gave us a treat.
We thank Dr Richa Sood and Dr Amit Sood from the Mayo clinic whose contribution was enough for the conduct of the summer camp. There were many other donations – all that is going to a fund for the continued support from the children. As we write this, a career guidance program for selected children is under way!
