�The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) and different organisations from around the world will topic today a Joint Declaration and Statement of Commitment calling for the identification of Palliative Care and Pain Treatment as Human Rights. The Declaration and Statement have been conjointly developed and signed by representatives of several international and regional organisations from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia and North America. The Declaration will be presented on Monday, August fourth at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.
This is the first time that a Joint Declaration has been developed and signed by a solicitation of leading international organisations in the field of palliative tutelage, hospice, hurting, cancer, HIV/AIDS and others.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), only a minority of the more than than one million people who die each calendar week receive alleviant care to alleviate their suffering. Developing countries, which represent roughly 80 per centum of the world's population, account for only near six percentage of spherical consumption of morphine, a mainstay therapy for alleviant care and pain controller.
"Even today, many health care plans, laws and treatment strategies for life-limiting conditions, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, do not allow fair to middling access to palliative attention and pain in the neck management," according to Liliana De Lima, Executive Director of the IAHPC. "Patients have physical symptoms and special psychosocial and spiritual needs which require set aside care. Their family members and their caregivers too suffer the emotional and social consequences of the diseases and their treatments. With fair to middling palliative concern and nuisance treatment, most patients and their families can be relieved from their suffering, and the quality of their lives can be improved significantly. We want to bring this to the attention of policy makers and funders with this Declaration so that palliative care is included as a component of care in addition to prevention, early detection and active handling."
Sharon Baxter, Executive Director of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association and Chair of the WPCA Advocacy Committee stated that "This is an unprecedented collective elbow grease by representatives from healthcare and patient advocacy organisations from about the world working together to achieve seven specific goals in palliative care and pain management."
The seven goals in the Declaration ar:
1- Identify, develop and implement strategies for the recognition of alleviant care and pain treatment as fundamental human rights.
2- Work with governments and insurance makers to adopt the necessary changes in legislation to insure appropriate care of patients with life-limiting conditions.
3- Work with policy makers and regulators to identify and eliminate regulatory and legal barriers that intervene with the rational habit of controlled medications.
4- Advocate for improvements in access to and availability of opioid analgesics (pain in the ass relievers) and other medications required for the good treatment of pain and other symptoms common in palliative attention, including limited formulations and appropriate medications for children.
5- Advocate for adequate resources to be made available to support the implementation of palliative care and pain treatment services and providers where needful.
6- Advocate for academic institutions, teaching hospital and universities to adopt the necessary practices and changes needed to ensure that palliative care and infliction positions, resources, personnel, infrastructures, review boards and systems are created and sustained.
7- Encourage and enlist other international and national palliative care, pain treatment, related organisations, associations, federations and interested parties to join this global hunting expedition for the recognition of palliative upkeep and pain treatment as human rights.
"The Declaration will be used by non-governmental organisations, professional organisations, federations, alliances and civic-minded individuals to bring alleviant care and pain treatment to the attention of policy makers, regulators, governments and organisations in order to ameliorate the care of patients with life-limiting conditions, and to provide support to their families and loved ones," Ms. Baxter stated.
The Joint Declaration and Statement of Commitment is also scheduled to be presented in meetings sponsored by genus Cancer, palliative maintenance and hurting management organisations throughout the rest of the year. The IAHPC and WPCA invite other interested organisations and individuals to polarity the Declaration using the online signature page at www.hospicecare.
