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International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care is an annual event, the 15th edition of which is to be held at Kochi (or Cochin, the Queen of the Arabian Sea) in 2008. This is indeed an honour as this prestigious conference is coming to Kochi for the first time.
This conference brings together various professionals involved in palliative care and facilitates generation and exchange of new knowledge, which helps the professional take better care of their patients. Such conferences also help in formulating guidelines and policies to make palliative care available to more people who need it in our country.
The theme of “KOCHIPALLCON” (Kochi 2008 conference) is “Quality and Coverage”. Since palliative care is still in its infancy in our country, it is perhaps the right time to define what good quality palliative care should be and how objectively it could be quantified. The conference would also deliberate on how to give good quality palliative care a wider coverage, so that the maximum number of needy patients across the country may have access to it.
We are expecting a minimum of about 500 delegates from USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Asia-Pacific Region, SAARC countries and from all regions within the country to attend the conference. The participants would include doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteers involved in palliative care.
The Consortium of Pain and Palliative Care Units in Ernakulam District consists of 14 Units providing palliative care to patients in and around Ernakulam district. All Units provide palliative care to the needy free of charge or on subsidized rates. All Units have a trained doctor either working full time on a modest salary or working part time free of charge. Volunteers from the community form the backbone of many of these Units. Most Units provide essential palliative medicines free of charge to the needy.
The Consortium though lacking in funds however makes good use of the collective expertise of members of its Units by helping in setting up new units, conducting regular educational programs for the palliative care professionals as well as volunteers, liasing with non-palliative care medical professionals for free consultation for the needy etc. The Consortium does not charge its Units for membership fee.
Pain and palliative care activities in India are supported by the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC), which was established in 1994 in consultation with WHO and the Government of India, intended for activities aimed at caring for people with life limiting illness such as cancer, AIDS and end-stage chronic diseases. It is a national organization of all the people involved with the palliative care movement in the country. Members include doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteers from India and abroad. Most members provide palliative care by working part time free of charge and some work full time on modest salaries.
The Indian Association of Palliative Care is involved in various activities ranging from educational programs to the professionals and volunteers, lobbying with various government agencies to make essential palliative care medicines available, to make palliative care an integral part of medical education curriculum, conducting workshops and seminars which help in generation and dissemination of knowledge providing better care to the people suffering from life limiting illnesses.
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