May 2023
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Pallium India at the C20: Representing Best Practices in Community-Based Palliative care at the G20 Summit
Pallium India had the privilege to be invited to the C20 (Civil Society 20) engagement group of the G20 in April. We were invited to present our work as part of 20 “Udaharans” or Best Practices by Civil Society organisations in the country.
In addition, we were part of the working group for Elderly Care and End of Life Care, and were amongst those that contributed towards the development of various draft policies on these subjects as well as strategies for fund generation for palliative care. These are tasks in progress, and will be taken up for further deliberation. Once finalised, the overarching policy recommendation will be presented by the representatives of the government to the G20 members.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan visits Pallium India
It was an honour and a privilege to host Dr Soumya Swaminathan, (former Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization and WHO’s former Deputy Director-General for Programmes), at Pallium India. Thank you, ma’am, for your insights and for joining us on a home visit.
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Question to be posed to every single patient
Dr Harvey Max Chochinov, the Canadian doctor who teaches the world the why, what and how of dignity in healthcare, proposes this single question that must be posed to every single patient:
“What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best care possible?”
Here is a Hindi version: आपको सर्वोत्तम संभव देखभाल देने के लिए एक व्यक्ति के रूप में मुझे आपके बारे में क्या जानने की आवश्यकता है?”
Congratulations, Dr Naveen Salins
Congratulations to Dr Naveen Salins (Associate Dean for Research, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal), this year’s recipient for the European Association for Palliative Care – EAPC Vzw (EAPC) ‘Clinical Impact Award’.
The EAPC’s ‘Clinical Impact Award’ is designed to highlight and recognise the outstanding scientific contributions to palliative care research which significantly impacts clinical practice, education, policy and public advocacy. The recognition therefore aims to highlight an individual’s career development and their actual and potential contributions to the field.
Dr Salins will receive the award during EAPC’s annual congress to be held at Rotterdam, Netherlands, between 15th – 17th June 2023.
Don’t miss this opportunity !
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation Education Series Spring 2023: The Nature of Grief
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation announces their 6th Education Series, The Nature of Grief, to begin on Thursday, May 4, 2023. This series frames grief within all that we understand to be natural and explores the many ways in which grief intersects nature.
Read: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation hosts its 6th online Education Series Spring 2023
Register: https://tinyurl.com/TheNatureOfGrief
Kuttikkoottam 2023
Pallium India supports the education of children, many of whom had been on the verge of dropping out of school, after their families were ravaged by illness or death and they were financially destroyed. Thanks to constant support and donations from our well-wishers, Pallium India has been able to keep their education uninterrupted, as much as possible.
Since 2011, every year Pallium India’s volunteers have been conducting 3-day camps for these children, during their summer holidays, where they get to meet others from similar backgrounds and forget their troubles at least for a short while. In 2020 & 2021 the camps did not take place due to covid & lockdowns, and in 2022 we organized a one-day event for the children.
You can support these children: https://palliumindia.org/donate/support-a-childs-education
For more information, please contact: 97467 46527 / info@palliumindia.org
Reimagining New Horizons in Improving Cancer Care
The National Roundtable Conference on Oncology organised by ECHO India was held on April 5, 2023 in New Delhi, India to discuss various topics related to cancer control and Reimagining New Horizons in Improving Cancer Care in the country.
The summit was initiated by Dr. Haresh Chandwani (GM, ECHO India) with keynote speaker being Dr. Sudarshan Mandal (Director NCD, MoHFW). The speakers in the summit also included Dr. (Col) Kumud Rai (Chairman, ECHO India), Dr. Sandeep Bhalla (Associate Vice President, ECHO India) and representatives from various civil society organisations.
Pallium India was represented by Dr. Sreedevi Warrier (please see image) in various panel discussions. Dr. Deepak Sudhakaran from Trivandrum along with Dr Preeti Chauhan from Delhi office of Pallium India were also in attendance.
Gilly Burn visits Odisha and Chhattisgarh
Gilly has been acknowledged internationally as an inspirational clinical role model, palliative care advocate and for her dynamic, charismatic teaching. In the 1980s, Gilly travelled the length and breadth of India, introducing palliative care, finding pioneers, getting them trained and empowering them for palliative care. She continues to visit and support the activities of the Indian palliative care community.
In 2023, she travelled across India from January to March, spreading awareness on palliative care over 47 institutes, covering 12,000+ kilometres! 87+ energetic hours of sessions on the basics of palliative care, palliative care nursing, art of gentle dying, breaking bad news etc…
Opioid Workshops in Odisha and Maharashtra
In order to raise awareness among various stakeholders Pallium India, WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief conducted a virtual workshop in Odisha on April 17th, 2023. Read more >>
On November 9th, 2022, a virtual workshop on “Opioids Availability” was conducted for the state of Maharashtra, attended by 215 participants, including officials from the National Health Mission (NHM) and Maharashtra’s Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) department. Read more >>
Congratulations, Dr Rajagopal
Dr Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, has been named one of the 100 Most Popular Anesthesiologists of India in a national survey, based on several criteria, conducted by Dr Tushar Chokshi and his team, over a period of six months. Dr Rajagopal was ranked 16 in the list.
Excellent book, everyone should read atleast once
“Excellent book everyone should read atleast once in their lifetime. Love,compassion, empathy for other’s is what are the attributes of a doctor and one has to cultivate it within us to be a great person. This book is for that journey. Morphine a miracle drug and unfortunate enough that our country being the largest producer of this, is not available for those who need the most……. EOL ie end of life should be dignified and this book is for that. Please read it. Worth in millions for those who value life.” – Sirish reviews Walk with the Weary on Amazon.
In Walk with the Weary: Life-changing Lessons in Healthcare, Dr Rajagopal knits his own experiences as a doctor with stories of the unique lives of his many patients, asserting that medicine can bring comfort and security to those at their most vulnerable and provide them the opportunity to not only live healthy lives but to die with dignity.
Get your copy of “Walk With the Weary” here:
Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/Walk-Weary-Dr-M-Rajagopal/dp/9393852448
Amazon.Com:
https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Weary-Life-changing-Lessons-Healthcare/dp/9393852448/
Aleph Book Company: https://www.alephbookcompany.com/book/walk-with-the-weary-life-changing-lessons-in-healthcare/
Flipkart: https://www.flipkart.com/walk-with-the-weary/p/itm681283c8fd982
If you have already read the book, please leave a review on the website or email it to us: info@palliumindia.org
Social Justice and Palliative Care
Anu Savio Thelly (Nurse Consultant at the Department of Palliative Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry) writes in ehospice.com:
While I was a student nurse caring for people with mental illness, I always wondered, ‘Why should we treat people and send them back to the conditions that make them sick?’. As time progressed and I became a registered nurse, I gradually understood that a patient’s social issues were, many a time, deliberately ignored by our fraternity. This may be because we nurses were unsure about how to assess and address these issues, or it may have been due to the lack of time we could devote to this need, or it may have simply been that these social aspects were not considered to have a significant association with the health and well-being of a person.
Once I forayed into palliative care, I realised that the social aspect of our patients and their families is also a crucial part of care. Read more >>
100 Ideas that Transformed India by Dr Dinesh C Sharma
Dr Dinesh Sharma, a prominent science and health journalist and a regular columnist in British Medical Journal, has published a book, “Indian Innovation, Not Jugaad: 100 Ideas that Transformed India”.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan (former chief scientist of WHO and head of ICMR prior to that) says: “Rich and Insightful, this is the most definitive and exhaustive history of innovations in post-independence India.”
17 of the ‘ideas’ belong to the “Health and Medical Research” section, and one of them is “Home-based Palliative Care” in Kerala.
Read more to know how to get your copy >>
Video of the Month
Palliative Care in Rural India
Akshaybhasha is an advocacy platform for palliative care in Maharashtra, pioneered by Dr Bhagyashree Barlingay, a palliative care physician from Arizona. Watch their video featuring a compassionate palliative care physician, Dr Ashita Singh from Emmanuel Hospital Association.
So glad to see her vision. It is not just to give palliative care to a few; rather it is to integrate palliative care into the healthcare system. Here is an excerpt.
“The key is to integrate palliative care into public health so that it becomes something that is deliverable at every point of health care delivery. It cannot remain stand-alone…. It has to be something that pervades our health care delivery system. I think there is a lot of scope for that because generally we have good systems in place even though there are challenges to the smooth running of those systems. But the way they are laid out, it is possible for everyone to receive palliative care at some level. It may not be the whole depth of holistic care. ….. In our villages, in our district, no one must die in pain, no one must die with a wound that is not cared for. That is not hard to achieve…. you just need enough enabling of a critical mass of people…. on the ground…. if they are empowered….we can do much for palliative care. ….we already have that fabric of close-knit communities, close-knit families. Just empower them….That can be the model on which primary, secondary and tertiary care can work”.
Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9IJMnsPYVA
Subscribe to Pallium India’s youtube channel for videos related to palliative care and our activities. You can watch previous webinars and training sessions, as well as listen to caregivers, survivors and others sharing their experiences.
Patients and families from anywhere in India can call Pallium India’s Telehealth helpline. Health care professionals who need advice on palliative care or pain management can call our numbers.
The service is FREE and available in English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil.
Our lines are open from Monday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4pm
Call: +91 964 588 4889 / +91 860 688 4889
In case of queries, please write to us: info@palliumindia.org
Pallium India maintains a state-wise directory of institutions offering palliative care services in India. The list includes palliative care providers from community-based organisations to tertiary care institutions and cancer care centers.
The directory covers critical information like contact details including phone numbers and email addresses, availability of In-patient, Out-patient and home care services, availability of morphine, etc.
If anyone you know needs palliative care support, our directory will help you find the centre closest to you. Do take a look at Pallium India’s Palliative Care Directory and let us know (Email: info@palliumindia.org or Contact us) if any centre near you is missing.
CAREERS / OPENINGS
Assistant Professor / Associate Professor in Singapore
Regional Coordinator (various locations), Pallium India
Head – Research & Development , Trivandrum
For more openings across the country, visit our CAREERS page:
https://palliumindia.org/category/career
In case of queries, please write to us: career@palliumindia.org
Follow us on Social Media for updates
Contact us: info@palliumindia.org / 97467 45497
Empathy and Emotional Support, The Healing Force: A Perspective from Patients and Caregivers
Chitra Goyal writes:
In the midst of the usual, mundane everyday life, everything changes in a flash when you suddenly discover you have a dreadful life-threatening illness. Your world crumbles beneath you, leaving you feeling devastated, frightened, and uncertain about the future.
That important meeting you were preparing so hard for seems of no relevance. That anxiety of your daughter making it to the best engineering college seems like a trivial matter. That holiday plan with your family you had been looking forward to is instantly forgotten. All these and many other anxieties and excitements you once held dear seem completely insignificant compared to this new reality. How you wish it was a mere nightmare or a wrong report. You just want it undone at any expense. You brood, sulk, and wallow in self-pity, asking yourself, “Why me?” with no easy answer in sight.
Events / Courses
May 12, 2023: International Nurses Day
International Nurses Day is celebrated annually around the world on 12 May – the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale – and is led by the International Council of Nurses (ICN).
Every year there is a different theme and for 2023 it is: “Our Nurses. Our Future.”
The ICN, which represents millions of nurses worldwide, said that this theme sets out what the federation wants for nursing in years to come to address global health challenges.
1 June 2023
6 weeks Certificate Course for doctors and nurses (CCPPM & CCPN) – at Trivandrum
Doctors and Nurses, join this six weeks certificate course in pain management and palliative care, at Trivandrum.
Start Date: 1 June 2023 (Thursday)
Eligibility:
CCPPM: M.B.B.S or BDS with permanent registration with medical / dental council.
CCPN: Any nurse holding a recognised degree or certificate in nursing.
Venue: Pallium India, Aisha Memorial Hospital Building, Paruthikkuzhy, Trivandrum.
Register: https://palliumindia.org/2023/03/ccppm-ccpn-jun1
Contact us: education@palliumindia.org / (+91) 85899 98760
12 May 2023
Refresher Course in Palliative Medicine
(RCPM)
Register: Refresher Course in Palliative Medicine
Walkathon 2023
Know more about the event: https://tinyurl.com/WalkathonFAQs
Please make sure you register first: https://palliumindiausa.org/news-events/seattle-walkathon23/
World Hospice & Palliative Care Day – October 14, 2023
Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care
This year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) falls on the 14th of October. The theme of WHPCD 2023 is Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care. WHPCD is an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world, and is celebrated every year on the second Saturday of October.
Last year’s theme was Healing Hearts and Communities. This year’s theme builds on last year’s and the continued need to come together to support communities and each other now more than ever.
Check out upcoming events: https://palliumindia.org/events
Queries? Contact: info@palliumindia.org
Click here to donate to Pallium India and lend a hand to our activities.
Donations from US can be made online on http://palliumindiausa.org/
For DOMESTIC Transfer:
Beneficiary: Pallium India Trust
Account No: 30086491915
State Bank of India
Branch: Pattom, Trivandrum
IFS Code: SBIN0003355
MICR No: 695002007
For FOREIGN donations:
Account Name: Pallium India Trust
Bank: State Bank of India (code: 00691)
Branch: Delhi
Account No: 40098265669
IFSC Code: SBIN0000691
SWIFT Code: SBININBB104
Queries? Write to info@palliumindia.org or call 97467 45504
After you make a donation, please write to us at donations@palliumindia.org for the receipt. Kindly provide your name, PAN number, contact number and address for us to issue the receipt.
Follow us for palliative care news, views and updates – as & when they happen
SAHAYATRA
Sahayatra, Pallium India’s monthly print magazine in Malayalam, is meant for anyone interested in Palliative Care – patients, families, palliative care professionals, volunteers and well-wishers.
Yearly subscription rate for Sahayatra is ₹200. (Only ₹500 if you subscribe for three years.) However, we send Sahayatra free of cost to patients and their families.
To receive Sahayatra monthly magazine by post, please send your complete postal address to info@palliumindia.org. Contact: 97467 45504
Read previous issues of Sahayatra online: https://palliumindia.org/sahayatra
PARTING SHOT
Story of Rambai
Rutumbara Logade, with Sangwari team members, writes:
On the 8th of December 2022, we (Rutumbara, me a lab technician, Barkha a staff nurse, Silima our community health worker, Belsan Bhaiya our driver) decided to visit one hamlet of Tapta village in Argoti Panchayat to do screening for TB, we visited each and every house. While doing that, through our conversations with the people in the village, we got to know about an elderly lady suffering from stroke for the past 4 years.
When we reached her house accompanied by the ‘mitanin didi’ (ASHA/village level community health worker), the door was locked from outside. We talked to their neighbors, who told us that the residents of the house have all gone to the fields. With the help of ‘mitanin didi’, we went inside the house and saw a 75+ year old grandmother (Rambai) on a grass mat in a corner of the house. When we went near her, her condition was miserable. She had not taken bath for months, there were knots in her hair. Her body was smelling of urine. Left side of her body was quite stiff; she was lying on her back but her feet were suspended in the air and were very stiff. With much efforts too she could not keep them straight.
She was unable to understand our language since she knew only ‘kuduk’ language (spoken by a specific tribe here) which we did not know. With the help of ‘mitanin didi’ she exchanges a few words but she was not able to speak much. We somehow managed to take her blood pressure and sugars and left that place. Just 2-3 houses apart there was another lady suffering from stroke who turned out to be the previous woman’s younger sister. She had recently had stroke, some 10-15 days back. We checked her blood pressure and blood sugar as well. We completed our screening camp and left for the office. We informed this to the doctors in our team.
In a few days, we, I, Rutumbara, Dr Chetanya (I call him Dada) and Belsan Bhaiya, visited the homes of the two women with stroke. Their state was similar to the previous visit. Dada checked them, made a treatment plan and supportive plan for things to be done through Sangwari for them.
Next day, I, Barkha and Belsan bhaiya again visited her as per our plan. That time also, the door of the house was locked from outside as all the family members had gone outside to work. We waited for them to return. When they returned, we talked with the family about what we intend to do. The family supported us. We made her lie on a homemade grass mat in the courtyard. Then we gave her a haircut getting rid of the thick knotted hair and trim her nails. She had a huge bed sore because of lying in one position for a long time. We somehow gave her a bath and did her dressing. She wore the saree and warm clothes with our help. Her family members learned to do the dressing by themselves at home, and received medications, diapers, and dressing materials.
Today also, when we go to visit her, she looks very different from the ‘Rambai’ we met on the first day! This gives me immense satisfaction.
This was a very new experience for all of us..we learnt a lot form this..this experience was quite special!
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