Published on: October 29, 2020

The word Aarohan means “to rise”

Aarohan started as a virtual programme in 2019 to facilitate and empower– Beneficiaries of Palliative Care. Last year with the support of the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) and Project ECHO India, we began this programme with a limited number of participants to facilitate interaction.

In the last one year, many of our participants who completed the course have worked with their communities, conducted sensitisation programmes, written articles, started an NGO, obtained status of “Registered Medical Institution” for stocking and dispensing opioids for pain relief, worked on advance care planning, provided palliative care to their loved ones, to name a few.

On 17th October 2020, we hosted a gathering of all our previous Aarohan participants and faculty, to know how this programme has made a difference to them on an individual as well as a community level. We discussed their memorable experiences with the programme and their journey in the last few months. We also asked the participants to share their valuable suggestions about how we could improve the programme.

Aarohan continues to strengthen the voice of direct palliative care beneficiaries (i.e: individuals, and their caregivers, who are currently living with conditions that require palliative care or may require it in the future) to seek and receive quality palliative care for themselves and their communities.

Aarohan II was officially launched on that day, and the sessions will start on 28th November 2020. And to our pleasant surprise, our previous participants wish to join Aarohan II as well.

Individuals who have lived experience of illness, disability or caregiving can apply for this free course.

We invite you to join the Aarohan family: for more information and to register, visit https://palliumindia.org/aarohan-giving-voice-to-lived-experiences or contact Shriya- +91 9980744419 or mail her at shriya@palliumindia.org

Here are some responses from participants:

Dr Jagruti Kamdar: After every morning walk, when I can get a few people together and I talk to them about palliative care.

Dr Sameera Jahagirdar: My institution had frequent interruptions of morphine supply. Aarohan and Ms Tripti Tandon showed me the way. Now we have uninterrupted supply of morphine.

Mr Ajay Balachandran: Aarohan empowered me not only in palliative care advocacy, it also opened up the online world to me. I also remember the precious lesson of advance directives.

Ms. Jyoti Anand: Aarohan gave me confidence, helped me to take better care of my dad, to understand him better, to avoid polypharmacy and to be a better daughter to him.