Published on: December 1, 2025

How Giva Foundation Would Like to Step In.

Over the past months, my journey into the world of palliative care has been deeply moving, eye-opening, purpose-defining & humbling. As part of the GIVA Foundation’s exploration into this critical yet underserved space, I visited a few palliative care centres — Romila Palliative Care Centre in Mumbai, Dr Prasanna’s Palliative Care Centre at Thane, Dr Eric Borges’ – SUKOON Nilaya in Mumbai, Dementia Alliance Centre in Bengaluru and the CIPLA Palliative Care Centre at Pune. Common factor – all of them are providing compassionate selfless and quality care to the Palliative care needs for the patients.

What I witnessed there continues to stay with me every day.

Sukoon-Nilaya | Cipla Palliative Care Centre | Health care workers at Cipla Palliative Care Centre | Dr Prasanna’s Palliative Care Centre

Insights & Learnings

My visits to palliative care centres and also few patient homes revealed how transformative early guidance and counselling can be for patients and families. Many had lived for months with fear, confusion, or complete uncertainty about their condition. When a trained professional explains what is happening and provides a realistic path forward, fear eases to relief and hopelessness shifts to clarity. Emotional counselling further stabilizes families, helping them process the diagnosis, accept the situation, and make informed decisions with a sense of clarity and confidence.

These experiences also highlighted the immense value of caregiver training and personalized home support. Families often want to help but simply lack the know-how; even basic training improves safety, comfort, and daily care immensely. Most importantly, these services act as a lifeline for families who feel lost, restoring a sense of security, hope, and dignity. The combined impact of guidance, counselling, and skilled caregiving helps patients feel valued—not just medically but emotionally and spiritually.

A Personal Lens: Caring for My Own Mother

Before I share my experiences from the Dementia care training in Bengaluru, it’s important to acknowledge a deeply personal part of this journey. My brother and I are caregivers to our mother, who is now living with moderate to severe dementia. She is dependent on us for all her needs of selfcare.

With God’s grace, we have been able to care for her with love, patience, and dignity. It is emotionally demanding, yet it is an honour—one that comes with a profound sense of responsibility and deep satisfaction. Through this experience, we have learned first-hand what caregiving truly means, far beyond textbooks or theory.

Besides the need in the community, this personal journey is also what triggered my commitment to dementia and palliative care. Along the way, I have observed professional caregivers who, despite their good intent, lacked the training, understanding, and skills required to manage dementia patients effectively. These gaps often lead to distress—for the patient and the family.

It reinforced the urgent need to strengthen dementia-specific training, build empathetic caregiving systems, and support families who are navigating this difficult path. And it is one of the strongest reasons I feel compelled to want to work in this space.

A Heart-Touching Experience in Dementia Care

My journey then took me to Dementia Alliance in Bangalore, where I underwent training in dementia care. I had the honour of interacting with many of the 80 dementia inhouse patients—each at a different stage of their cognitive decline. The experience was overwhelming, humbling, and profoundly inspiring in some way. The Dementia Alliance team of doctors, nurses & caregivers here do far more than providing medical support. They assist patients at every step—helping them eat, interact, exercise, maintain hygiene, and participate in cognitive activities which also includes day-care patients Their work ensures one critical thing: that no patient loses their sense of dignity, even as memory fades.

I walked away with a deeper understanding of what dementia patients endure and a stronger urgency to contribute to better care solutions.

The Alarming Gap: Demand Far Exceeds Availability

Across India, the need for palliative care is rising sharply—driven by: ageing population, increase in dementia cases, growing cancer incidence, neurological and chronic illnesses. Yet, the availability of quality palliative care including the awareness & training needs —whether in-house facilities or home-based services—remains extremely limited, much lesser than the actual need in the community.

Families often struggle alone with very little or no information or guidance. Caregivers are untrained. Patients suffer silently. And terminally ill individuals often spend their last days without comfort, dignity, or emotional support.

This gap needs urgent attention.

Organisations like Pallium India under the visionary leadership of Dr M.R. Rajagopal, Dementia Alliance, Dr Armeida’s Romila Palliative Care– Sneha Society, and individually run centres by Dr Eric and Dr Prasanna, among others, have been doing exceptional work in the palliative care space. They have set the foundation, created awareness, and demonstrated what compassionate, community-centred care can achieve.

Equally inspiring are organisations such as Karunashraya, Bengaluru and CanSupport, Delhi (although I have not yet had the opportunity to visit) whose commitment to quality palliative care has helped thousands of families navigate some of their most difficult times with dignity and comfort.

The dedication and impact of these teams highlight not only the rising need for palliative care across India but also the profound difference that trained professionals and empathetic volunteers can make. Their work serves as a reminder of how experientially meaningful and socially urgent this field is.

At GIVA, we are inspired by these efforts and are committed to contributing our strengths to the palliative care movement—working alongside these pioneers to help bridge gaps, build capacity, and support communities with compassion and care.

Our visits, interactions, and personal caregiving experiences have moved us deeply. As an organisation committed to human wellbeing, GIVA Foundation believes that everyone deserves care, dignity, and respect—especially at the most vulnerable stages of life.

GIVA Foundation is committed to walking this path. Because every life deserves comfort. Every struggle deserves support. And every person deserves dignity on their final journey.

Our Commitment to Advancing Home-Based Palliative Care

GIVA Foundation is a start-up NGO – committed to contributing towards strengthening palliative care solutions—subject to building the right partnerships, collaborations, and securing grant support to create sustainable model for care and support.

We envision strengthening palliative care through a compassionate, home-based approach which aims to support patients and families by offering in-home care services, counselling to reduce fear and uncertainty and offer the much-needed emotional support. Offer basic training that empowers both professional and family caregivers & ensure comfort through symptom relief and pain management, while also promoting awareness about the “living will” to help patients make dignified, informed end-of-life choices. With committed partners and adequate resources, we hope to shape a community-backed palliative care model that prioritizes guidance & support for home care – dignity, and emotional wellbeing.

A Call for Collective Action

Palliative care is not just a service—it is a responsibility. My interactions with patients, families, and caregivers have made one thing clear: India must do more.

We need stronger home-based care, skilled caregivers, community awareness, and accessible support systems.

The encouraging part is that India already has a progressive policy landscape—palliative care is recognised under the National Health Policy, and several states have begun integrating it into primary healthcare. The foundation is strong; what we need now is wider implementation and community-level action.

---

---