Physical Health United States Project #54505

Advocacy: Changing the World One Bedside at a Time

by International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC)

Summary

Palliative Care addresses health related suffering and is an essential service of primary health care. We educate our members on how to advocate for palliative care integration into healthcare systems. Advocacy uses stories and evidence to educate policymakers about the urgent need for public health policies and is strongest when it includes the voices of those who deliver and receive palliative care. Few training resources exist to support palliative care advocacy for policy change.

$20,000
total goal

$19,442
remaining

4
donors

3
monthly donors

6
months

Challenge

More than 70% of people in the world need PC & cannot access it. PC is mostly provided by faith based & charitable organizations on shoestring budgets. Unfamiliarity with the PC approach to serious health-related suffering challenges PC advocacy at all levels. Misunderstandings throughout the UN & national systems leave a public policy vacuum & limit service delivery. Providers trained in basic PC & recipients who have benefited from it, can to learn to advocate for this essential service.

Solution

The IAHPC is conducting a series of monthly online advocacy training course. Effective advocacy activates a feedback loop that extends from member state treaty bodies and official documents, through civil society organizations, to the patient and family and back again. Some of the topics covered are the institutional landscape, essential medicines, developing a needs assessment & policy brief, PC integration, and advocacy for PC education.

Long-Term Impact

The WHO has 194 Member States (which are various country's governments). The IAHPC has members in 106 countries. The goal of this program is to train at least one IAHPC member from each country to act as an effective PC advocate, to join the global social movement for a world free of health-related suffering. Our advocacy training program will empower our members in those member states to advocate for PC issues that will directly affect patient care.