Global Palliative Care – by Dr Katherine Pettus
Katherine Pettus carries painful memories of her mother’s suffering in distress – more than 30 years back – as she says, “when doctors and nurses didn’t know any better”.
Then she became a hospice volunteer, and in 2010 wandered into a palliative care conference organized in Fresno, California, organised by Dr Nancy Hinds. What she heard there, and her subsequent learning at a leadership development program organized by Dr Frank Ferris and team at San Diego, gave her a sense of direction and she decided to engage in international advocacy for access to palliative care. Now she is advocacy officer for the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC).
Katherine’s book, Global Palliative Care: Reports from the Peripheries, describes this entry to palliative care and subsequent travels in body and spirit through the world and through the realms of life and death. It describes what she learnt during her travels through Africa, India and Latin America, and what she learnt during her advocacy at Geneva and elsewhere. The book also takes us along with her intellectual travels through health, faith and spirituality.
In short, reading the book is quite an enjoyable intellectual feast. Purchase this book on Amazon (available as paperback and Kindle ebook): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089D3SC55