In the early 1990s, a palliative care movement began in Kerala, in Southern India, with a mission to help people in need of palliative care. Now, almost 60% of the population in Kerala has access to palliative care compared to 2% in India as a whole.  Pratibha Pal from Pallium India tells us how this transformation has been possible. Pallium India volunteer, caregiver and person receiving care (in the background) The vehicle carrying the palliative care home care team stops at a distance from the house they must visit. It’s a narrow lane that cannot accommodate the vehicle, so the team, w ..read more

The EAPC blog celebrated its 12th anniversary recently, and we announced our top 5 blogs ever. One of the blogs which so captured your interest was about Schwartz Rounds.  Sarah Massie from The Point of Care Foundation brings us up to date about the enduring value of Schwartz Rounds for the palliative care community. We learned recently that an article by our associate, Joanna Goodrich, was the fourth most-read blog on the EAPC website in its twelve year history. That blog is itself now ten years old, so I would like to provide an update, and show how Schwartz Rounds continue to pos ..read more

Working in palliative care can be emotionally challenging. For March 2024 Palliative Medicine’s Editor’s Choice, María Arantzamendi, Paula Sapeta, Alazne Belar and Carlos Centeno share the findings of their recent research which brings a new theory on how palliative care professionals can develop coping skills through their career. Photo credit: Suzanne D Williams, Pixabay Do you remember the dawn of your career palliative care – the excitement and the nervousness? And how do you feel now? Have you ever felt like you could not continue in this line of work? At different points in our professio ..read more

Every fifteen minutes, somewhere in Europe, parents are faced with the devastating news that their child has cancer. Improving experience of care provided, for children and their parents, is important and a new research project has identified a need to improve communication to optimise care. Prof Kim Beernaert tells us more. Despite more hopeful prospects compared to previous decades, cancer remains the primary cause of death from disease among children in Europe. While great strides have been made in research and treatment, the path through cancer therapy remains profoundly challenging for t ..read more

Research is essential to ensure good quality palliative care, yet important research can be wasted when it is not communicated and implemented. In an ongoing study, Tobias Constien highlights a way to mobilise research for impact and invites researchers to connect with the research project to help create resources to maximise the reach of palliative care research. There are many inspiring research projects underway in the field of palliative care, addressing the need for further development of services and implementation of high-quality palliative practices across our healthcare systems. Howe ..read more

Many emotions are experienced by people at the end of their lives and by their relatives, yet gratitude could be an overlooked but very signifcant key emotion to consider.  For January 2024 Palliative Medicine’s Editor’s Choice, Emmanuelle Poncin, Gian Domenico Borasio and Mathieu Bernard share the findings of their recent research which brings a new perspective to this sometimes undervalued emotion. Photo credit: Günther Schneider, Pixabay. Have you ever come home after a long day to find that the table was set and the dinner done? Had the bus driver waited just for you before closing th ..read more

Palliative care education equips healthcare professionals, caregivers, volunteers and others with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide quality care to people with serious illnesses and their families. There is much to be done to make sure that good quality palliative care education is available across Europe and a new research project aims to help with this. Piret Paal, Philip Larkin, Stephen Mason and Cornelia Brandstötter-Gugg from CODE-YAA@EDU-PC tell us more. The CODE-YAA team The World Health Organization identifies that one of the quality indicators for palliative care ..read more

It’s a significant milestone!  Mark Taubert, the EAPC’s Vice-President and member of the board of directors, who is also part of our blog editorial team, looks back on twelve years of the EAPC blog, and reveals our five most read blogs. The EAPC blog publishes engaging, interesting and thought-provoking articles, and provides a weekly online platform for opinion, debate and personal perspectives on palliative care in Europe and beyond. But you knew that already, didn’t you?! But what you might not know is that this month the blog is 12 years old… and that since 2012 the EAPC has publishe ..read more

World Cancer Day is on the 4th February 2024 and it is an international awareness day led by the Union for International Cancer Control. For World Cancer Day 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe has chosen palliative care as the focus of the day. They will host a webinar on 2nd February 2024 to showcase how palliative care can make a significant contribution to the wellbeing of patients and their families. Dr Marilys Corbex, Senior Technical Officer at WHO, tells us more. Photo credit: EAPC 2019 Photo competition The necessity of palliative care in can ..read more

Health ministers and high level delegates from the 53 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region, as well as representatives of partner organisations, met in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 24th–26th October 2023 for the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC73). Irena Laska, a palliative care nurse working in Albania, was there, and tells us what it was like to be an official delegate at this important meeting. Irena Laska with Entela Kolovani, Albania’s Deputy Minister for Health. It was an extraordinary opportunity and real honour for me to represent the ..read more