Community participation in end-of-life care discussed at Hospice UK conference
In a virtual presentation at ‘Hospice UK conference‘ on 23 November 2022, Dr M R Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, discussed Kerala’s experience with community participation in palliative care.
Sandwiched between two brilliant presentations by Dr Libby Sallnow on ‘Rebalancing end-of-life care’ and by Ms Rebecca Patterson of the Good Life, Good Death Good Grief program, his talk centred on how end-of-life care needs to be built on a foundation of community support. Integration of palliative and end of life care in all healthcare is essential, with specialist palliative care available for problems that cannot be tackled by the routine healthcare system.
The Realistic Utopia envisaged by the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death advocates strongly for ‘Bringing death back into life’ by a concerted effort for ‘death literacy’.