Activities

We believe the three foundation measures advocated
by the WHO are eminently practical and try to
work at all three sides of the triangle.

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Rehabilitation

Livelihood for Families Devastated by Disease and Treatment

Our rehabilitation project continues, finding means of livelihood for patients and families. We have bought cows for some families, set up small shops for some and bought sewing machines for family members who could possibly make an income out of them.

In an effort to generate a system that is viable, we conducted an audit of all the rehabilitation projects undertaken during a one year period, and found that except for one of doubtful benefit, the support did improve quality of life for the patient and family in all the cases.

Sometimes Very Small Things Matter a Lot

“Sometimes very small things matter a lot. This gentleman (left) had lost the use of his legs, yet bravely eked out a precarious living from this modest shop. But he was stuck to an immovable chair. Our team (right) gave him a movable office chair on wheels; now he could move about by himself! Such a small gift, and what a difference it makes to his quality of life!

Schooling of Children

Often, when disease strikes any member of the family, there is a huge adverse impact on children. When it is time for schools to re-open, lack of a few hundred rupees – a school bag, school uniforms, books and an umbrella may be all they need – children may drop out of school. Thanks to our many donors, we find it possible to support many children to continue their studies. We now have about 50 students receiving support for education, most of them school-children, but some even for professional courses.

This gentleman with advanced carcinoma of larynx had one major regret. His dear wish was to educate his daughters. And one of them was yet to finish schooling. We assured him that we will support her education. He is no more now; but her daughter is undergoing a course on “Photoshop” in a school of computer sciences, as she wished. We feel so privileged that we were able to support her education.

Starting Palliative Care at Three Cancer Centres in North & North-East India.

3 New Centres

In collaboration with the WHO Collaborating Centre at Madison-Wisconsin, and funded by National Cancer Institute, USA, Pallium India undertook a project to start palliative care services in three cancer centres in states in which for all practical purposes it did not exist. Applications were invited from nearly 200 cancer treatment centres in the country and there were thirty applicants. Three were chosen by a designated international panel. A doctor-nurse team from all three states– from Manipur (Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal), Mizoram (Regional Cancer Institute, Aizawl) and UP (King George’s Medical College,Lucknow) – finished their six weeks’ training in Kochi, Kerala between November 2005 and February 2006. By March 06, palliative care services have already started in all three centres. They will continue to receive support under the program for three years.

Palliative Care Training Centre in Hyderabad

Hyderabad Centre

A joint project has been started in collaboration with American Cancer Society (ACS) and the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR) to promote the development of palliative care training centres in India. The first of such training centres has been started at MNJ Cancer Institute, Hyderabad. The project has now started training programs.

Scholarships for palliative care course

Dr. Sreedhar

Eight doctors received scholarships for undergoing six weeks’ certificate course in Pain and Palliative Medicine. This was funded by the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC). Six of them have returned to their home towns and started palliative care services as pioneers in their regions.

Opioid availability

We continue our work with the WHO Collaborating Centre at Madison-Wisconsin to improve opioid availability in the country.

Audit of palliative care course

To guide palliative care educational activities for the future, we conducted an audit of a six weeks’ certificate course in pain and palliative medicine. 20 doctors who had completed the course over a three year period got together for this audit as well as for a refresher course. We are thankful to American Cancer Society for funding this program. Dr Robert Twycross, Dr Mhoira Leng and Dr Shalini Vallabhan were overseas faculty members for the program. The findings of this workshop will guide our future courses.

Competition on “pharmaco-economics”

As part of our educational activities, Pallium India conducted a competition on “Pharmaco-economics in Palliative Care” open to all participants at a Training the Trainers program held in Mumbai in Jan 2005. Dr Robert Twycross, Dr Reena George and Dr Ramanarayan were the judges. Dr M.M.Sunilkumar (Kochi) won the first place. Dr Anand Krishna Gudur (Belgaum) came second and Dr Mallika Tiruvadanan (Chennai) came third. Prizes for the winners were distributed during the Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care held in Chennai in February 2006.

Dr. Linda Emanuel speaking at Sree Ramachandra Medical University at Chennai Palliative care curriculum

Dr. Emanuel

We have adapted EPEC (Education of Physicians on End-of-life Care), an educational program based in Nortwestern University, Chicago, to suit Indian palliative care courses. We are very thankful to the Chicago team headed by Dr Linda Emanuel, to Dr Vivek Khemka, the major catalyst in the collaboration and to Lance Armstrong foundation who funded the project.

Palliative Care Policy, Government of Kerala.

In 2005, Pallium India submitted a proposal for adoption of a palliative care policy by Government of Kerala. This was followed by several discussions involving all palliative care units in Kerala. We are pursuing the matter and hope that Kerala will have a policy integrating palliative care into routine medical practice.