PHPCI Newsletter | Issue 5 | June 2022

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

“The citadel of established practice will seldom fall to the polite knock of a good idea. It may, however, yield to a long siege, a pre-emptive strike, a wooden horse or cunning alliance.”

(Attr. Barry MacDonald, 1975)

Public health palliative care is a very good idea, and in my view, transforming health and social practice reaps benefits for communities and services. Are we succeeding in getting this message across? For those of us who’ve come to this work via palliative care, the ‘polite knock’ reflects the benevolent intentions of the hospice movement; yet this good will can be trapped in what my Australian colleague, Prof. Sanchia Aranda, once described as the ‘tyranny of niceness’. Waiting for the door to open might find us standing on the threshold indefinitely.

The ‘long siege’ of health promotion strategies is perhaps most familiar to us, and the ‘pre-emptive strike’ can describe the early interventions inherent in health promotion practice and, in our field, described early on by Allan Kellehear and Bruce Rumbold in the Big 7 Checklist. The ‘wooden horse’ brings with it nuances of deception, however it could be reframed to describe how practitioners identify the existing assets within a community and offer their knowledge to them in transformative action.

In the nearly 50 years since MacDonald wrote this, the language of the ‘cunning alliance’ has, I suspect, morphed into ‘strategic partnerships’. This is fundamental to public health palliative care practice as communities, health and social services, and civic life collaborate in addressing the issues of dying, death, loss and caregiving. Our success in getting our message across might rely on any number of these approaches.

It’s now under three months until the 7th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference gets underway. Luc Deliens, Joachim Cohen and their team have developed an exciting and engaging program for the conference, and (strategically) partnered with the City of Bruges to provide a cultural program that will inspire. You can register for the conference by clicking here. PHPCI will have a table at the conference where you can meet PHPCI members and hear more about the Association.

A range of other activities and resources are available to support the promotion of public health palliative care. The Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care has now been formally launched and can be purchased from OUP by clicking here. It will also be sold at the Conference. It is, in many ways, our ‘guidebook’ for this work. PHPCI members will continue to receive email notifications of the various events we host or support, including a webinar on the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death by its lead author and PHPCI Vice-President, Libby Sallnow; information about this webinar on 7/8 July and other events is included in this newsletter.

We promote our events beyond our membership, of course, and you can find us on social media – we’ve recently set up a new LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12650275/ .

On behalf of the PHPCI Council, I send my best wishes to you and look forward to meeting many of you at the Conference.

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Upcoming Events!

7th International Public Health Palliative Care Conference 2022

Registration is open!

The 7th Public Health Palliative Care International conference (PHPCI) will be held in Bruges (Belgium), September 20-23, 2022. The congress title is: “Democratizing caring, dying and grieving: participation, action, understanding and evaluation”. The conference brings together leading innovators, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, representatives of civic society in the public health palliative care approach. The main conference venue will be the brand-new Bruges Meeting & Convention Centre.

The conference is hosted by the End-of-Life Care Research Group of Belgium and is organized in collaborations with PHPCI, Compassionate Bruges, the EAPC Reference Group on Public Health & Palliative Care and the EAPC Research Network.

More information about the upcoming conference can be found HERE.

Details of the full conference program can be found HERE.

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Compassionate Bruges - Knooppunten (Nodes Festival)

During the conference week, Compassionate Bruges organizes the city festival ‘Knooppunten’ (Nodes Festival), a week in which the city gives loss, death, grief, situations of serious illness and long-term informal care a visible place. Dozens of initiatives for and by the people of Bruges are on the calendar: an arts & science market, a meeting of young fellow-sufferers who are confronted with loss, various exhibitions on mourning and bereavement, several lectures for different audiences and on different topics, a mourning café, a grand memorial moment with thousands of candles on the canals of Bruges, a science café on living with death, a creative grief group for parents and their children, a Compassionate Bruges walk and more.

More information on the Nodes Festival (only in Dutch) can be found by clicking here.

Next to the online activity calendar, the city also provides a printed brochure containing all initiatives that will be distributed among the people living in Bruges.

The PHPCI conference will interact with the Nodes Festival by integrating some of the initiatives into the PHPCI cultural programme. In this way, conference visitors can also experience Compassionate Bruges and at the same time be immerged into beautiful Bruges.

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International Summer School on Public Health & Palliative Care Research

The first international Summer School on Public Health & Palliative Care Research will be held from 14 to 17 September 2022 in the historical city of Ghent (Belgium), ahead of the 7th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference!

This Summer School will bring together international, leading experts in the field and a new generation of talented young researchers for an in-depth exploration of cutting-edge research in palliative care for public health. Over the course of four interactive days, we will explore the following themes through keynote lectures and interactive workshops:

1. Compassionate Communities & Community-based participatief onderzoek

2. Evaluation of palliative care interventions in public health: processes and results

3. Epidemiology: population screening in palliative care for public health

4. Translating research into practice: valorisation of health-promoting palliative care

The Summer school is organized by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Reference Group on Public Health & Palliative Care and hosted by the End-of-Life Care Research Group (VUB – UGent). Visit the website for more information. Click here to register for the Summer School!

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SAVE THE DATE: November 1st, 2022 World Compassionate Communities Day

How will you celebrate World Compassionate Communities Day for 2022?

Over the past decade or so, in many places around the world, people have come together to build Compassionate Communities to support those experiencing dying, death, caregiving and grief. This global movement has grown from strength to strength. The time is right to celebrate the movement with its own day of recognition!

World Compassionate Communities Day aims to build on the momentum of the growing number of Compassionate Communities projects and programs, highlight the work of members and member organizations around the globe, and continue to mobilise and connect people through local compassionate actions related to dying, death, caregiving and grief.

It’s your day. It’s your community. Consider running an event, or marking this global moment by taking local actions.

Head to our PHPCI website World Compassionate Communities Day page for more information by clicking here. We will be updating the information and resources soon!

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PHPCI Webinar - The Value of Death

Title: The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life

Description: Over the past 60 years, dying has moved from the family and community setting to become primarily the concern of health systems. Bringing together experts in health and social care, social science, economics, philosophy, political science, theology, community work, as well as patient and community activists, the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death analysed how societies around the world perceive death and care for the dying, providing recommendations to policy makers, governments, civil society, and health and social care systems. This webinar will explore the realistic utopia described for how death and dying could be in the future and will help participants understand the relevance of the recommendations for their own context.

Presenter: Dr. Libby Sallnow

Date: Thursday July 7th, 2022

Time: 4:30pm (Ottawa), 9:30pm (London), 6:30am (Brisbane – Friday July 8th)

Members discount code: 2021Webinars

To learn more and register: click here.

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Perron Institute Symposium - Compassionate Communities Reframing Palliative Care

Compassionate Communities reframing Palliative Care 

Recognising that 95% of care provided to people at end of life is informal care, and only 5% is provided by formal services, there is growing global interest in adopting the compassionate communities approach to support people with a life limiting illness or chronic disease.

This Symposium provides the opportunity to hear about applications of this approach by world leaders in the field (Dr Julian Abel, Dr Libby Sallnow and Prof Samar Aoun) as well as the evidence, implications and potential replication in other regions, of an innovative program running in Western Australia’s South West, pioneered by trained volunteer compassionate community connectors to support patients and their family carers.

For more information about this event or to register click here.

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Fostering Resilient Compassionate Communities through Connection & Inspiration

September 9th, 2022 marks the British Columbia Centre for Palliative Care's inaugural hybrid (online and in-person) Compassionate Communities Event: Fostering Resilient Compassionate Communities Through Connection and Inspiration.

This one-day event will bring together community organizations, clinicians, practitioners, volunteers, researchers and community leaders from across the province of British Columbia to raise awareness, exchange ideas and explore innovative ideas and best practices. Participants can expect engaging expert speakers and thought-provoking panel discussions, including keynote speaker, Dr. Julian Abel.

Dr. Julian Abel is the Director of Compassionate Communities UK, author and podcaster. He has a special interest in the impact and creation of compassionate communities as a model in palliative healthcare. The health outcomes of this model have been dramatic, improving the health of people, Increasing compassion, love, laughter, and friendship.

The event's details will soon be available on the BC Centre for Palliative Care webpage, which can be accessed by clicking here.

British Columbia Centre for Palliative Care is a provincial non-profit organization established and funded by the Ministry of Health to accelerate the spread of innovations and best practices in palliative care in British Columbia, Canada.

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Showcasing PHPC Initiatives:

Virtual Eastern Bay Villages: Te Kokoru Manaakitanga

Ehara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.

My strength is not as an individual but as a collective.

I live in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, a rural area of Aotearoa/New Zealand blessed by sunshine, coastal plains, and tree clad hills. The population is nearly 50% Māori. Although most of their lands were taken through colonisation, they are rich in culture and skills and live within extended families. Yet many face poverty, despite working long hours on often a minimum wage. The other 50% is a mainly Pākehā (European) population of settlers. Some, with families scattered through this country or around the world, enter old age alone.

Our communities came together five years ago to tackle issues of vulnerability and isolation. We knew that the sense of belonging and purpose that we all need cannot be met by social services. Although essential to our health, services render clients into passive recipients of care. Yet, like all citizens, older people wish to continue to use their time and gifts, as active and contributing citizens. These roles bring, as one of our members said, “a reason to get out of bed in the morning”. They also bring the new relationships, forged through shared purpose that underpin good mental health as we age.

A shared concern for people who are ageing, coupled with a belief that we can make a positive difference in one another’s lives, motivated us to act. They gave us the energy to set up our Virtual Eastern Bay Villages: Te Kokoru Manaakitanga, a partnership between Māori and Pākehā. We applied for grants and appointed two coordinators, one Māori, one Pākehā. To ensure we reached the most isolated, we invited health services to refer people to us. Our coordinators work to build relationships among members and source further funding. They ask new members what their skills are, as well as any needs and find ways for them to contribute their presence, their time, and their gifts.

There are myriad ways we support one another, and our wider communities. These can range from fixing a shelf to sharing hobbies, teaching people how to use Facebook or Skype their families, walking a dog for someone no longer able to do this, cooking and sharing information on nutrition, hosting guest speakers at meetings on advance directives, and other issues of ageing. Some members joined with younger disabled people to advocate for an age and disability friendly district. Our abilities to support one another are only limited by the gifts and skills we bring.

Where people living alone might have to enter a rest home, we find someone to homeshare so they can retain their independence. In one situation, where family were in Australia and Covid19 prevented their return, our homesharer and other members arranged the funeral for a staunch and committed member.

Our skills and energy have also begun to enhance our wider communities in two ways. Our rural district is virtually devoid of public transport, and this is a key cause of isolation. Members joined with younger disabled people, government agencies and funders to solve this issue. Together they are setting up a community owned transport organisation planning to purchase vans, trial carpooling and provide a ride share app.

Secondly, concerned by the cost of funerals, we are setting up a community owned eco-funeral collective. As well as saving costs, we feel the traditional ways communities, both Māori and Pākehā, once looked after our loved ones after death, are a gentler process and better support families at a time of loss and grief. We organised training for a collective of funeral guides to support communities to relearn these traditional ways of death care. Eschewing embalming, we sourced funding for cooling pads for families to hire and are building a website to share the information families need to organise their own family led eco-funerals.

In five years, we have begun a journey. In the true nature of community led development the future direction is in the hands of members, contingent on their concerns and skills. The Māori proverb that begins this article encapsulates the power of a community working together. Older people have so much to offer, they are just waiting to be asked. A vehicle such as our Virtual Eastern Bay Villages enables them to take action, not only to benefit one another but also their communities.

Ruth Gerzon, Whakatāne

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Developing community-led palliative care provision in Kenya

A partnership between UK-based charity Hospice Care Kenya (HCK) and Kenyan palliative care organisations is aiming to develop community-based palliative care in three Kenyan counties through training and supporting Community Health Volunteers to provide holistic home-based palliative care and raise awareness of cancer. The work is taking place in three very different contexts; Nairobi Hospice is working in the city’s urban slums, Siaya Hospice is training volunteers across the predominantly rural county, and community-based organisation Ongata Ngong Palliative Community Care is working in Maasai communities of Kajiado West. The project aims to improve quality of life of over 1,100 people with palliative care needs plus their carers and family members.

Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) are lay-people who, together with their supervising Community Health Assistants (CHAs), play a central role in implementing Kenya’s Community Health Strategy - making home visits to treat common illnesses, delivering health promotion messages and linking clients with health services. Hospices are hugely under-resourced with limited capacity to provide community-based care. After training volunteers play an important role in filling that gap.

The project is now in its second and final year, and training of 228 Community Health Volunteers and 49 Community Health Assistants has been achieved.

Feedback from trained community health volunteers

Thanks to an evaluation carried out by Dr. Zipporah Ali we have gained some valuable feedback from community health workers. The trained CHVs and CHAs agreed that the training had equipped them with knowledge, skills and confidence to identify clients in need of palliative care, and refer them appropriately for further management or provide palliative care in home-visits including to very sick patients.

“We are now able to give care to a person who has lost all hope, for example a terminally ill cancer patient, you know they feel unloved and some have lost all hope. We were taught to visit or call such clients, show them love and give them hope”

Feedback from CHV in Nairobi

Some commented that sessions on pain management were difficult to understand with an excess of medical terminology and some volunteers would have appreciated more time to learn how to navigate the difficulties of breaking bad news and discussing sensitive information with clients. These points are taken on board for focussing future training.

CHVs face many challenges in carrying out their duties including poor infrastructure, a lack of essential supplies for home visits, and long distances to be covered. In 2018, community health volunteers in Siaya County told us that a simple kit containing the essentials for providing home-based care would enable them to provide better care to their patients, so under the project each CHV has been issued with a kit.

Only one of the three project counties offers a small monthly incentive to its CHVs (around $50 USD) placing financial strain on many volunteers who are usually poor. Despite the challenges, we have found that CHVs are highly committed, most having volunteered over many years, dedicating time each day to visit clients. They are a true image of compassionate communities!

Training of trainers to enhance sustainability

It is crucial to train the immediate supervisors of the volunteers, the Community Health Assistants (CHAs), to ensure that Community Health Volunteers are adequately supported from within the health system. A large group of CHAs were trained in Nairobi which has resulted in a highly motivated and mobilised group of volunteers referring and taking on the home-based care of patients. In Kajiado County we noted that where fewer CHAs have been trained, CHVs are more dependent on the project partner for support.

“As CHAs, we need to be able to train our CHVs. I think we need some extra training to equip us as trainers of trainees. We would like to train all our CHVs to support palliative care patients in the community”

Feedback from a CHA in Siaya County

Community acceptance is key

Empowering and gaining the support of community leaders and ‘gatekeepers’ is vital in ensuring acceptance of community health programmes and may contribute to more sustainable community palliative care provision. Church and community leaders sensitised on palliative care and cancer awareness have taken on the role of community health educator. As a result, the project has exceeded expectations in the number of new referrals, with 381 clients referred from the community to health facilities for investigation. In Kajiado West, referrals and requests for home visits have been received from outside the area covered by trained CHVs due to information being passed on between CHVs on the ground through word of mouth.

A cost-effective solution

Results show that investing in CHVs and CHAs has a big impact on their capacity to deliver home-based palliative care and inform the community on cancer. Over 900 palliative care clients and over 500 carers and family members have already been enrolled into the programme of community home-based care across the three counties. At an average training cost of just $70 USD per trainee, yet with each volunteer already providing care to on average six clients and their carers, the intervention is proving a cost-effective method of increasing palliative care access in underserved communities. However, to sustain the activity of the CHVs ongoing support is essential. No county health management has properly committed any budget to scaling up palliative care within their county. Results from this project will be shared to demonstrate the value of investment in well trained and adequately supported and compensated community health volunteers.

Going forward

A key project tool to measure outcomes for palliative care clients and their carers is the African Palliative Care Association Palliative Care Outcome Scale (APCA POS). The integration of this tool into every day practice is challenging as it is not yet widely used in Kenya but its use during the final months of this project to measure quality of life and palliative care outcomes will provide valuable information on the effectiveness and impact of this community-based programme.

This project is funded with UK Aid from the British Government.

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Exploring the experiences of forced migrant families in children’s palliative care

Forced migrant children and their families are rarely studied and under-represented in the literature surrounding children’s health (Flanagan and Hancock, 2010). Whilst children’s palliative care is an emerging research area, research focusing specifically on the palliative care given to forced migrant children and their families, is missing from the current literature.

Forced migrant families have varied and multifaceted needs which may not be recognised or addressed by current service provision due to a lack of evidence base for practice. When fleeing persecution such as war or political instability, many forced migrant families face a difficult and dangerous journey to the UK. Upon arrival they may face community hostility, misunderstanding and a legal minefield to claim asylum. For those families who flee their country of origin in search of medical care for their children who may have life threatening or life limiting conditions, the challenges of migration are coupled with palliative care complexity. This may include fear, uncertainty, difficulties accepting diagnosis or non-curative care, parental care burdens and a lack of social support with many having to leave extended families behind. In addition are communication and language difficulties, difficulties navigating and accessing health and social care and divergences between parents and health care professional (HCP) beliefs.

As part of my PhD research I aim to address this gap in the literature. Our systematic review (Clancy et al, 2020) analysed 18 studies which explored current exemplars of good practice as well as challenges and barriers to care. From the themes identified a cultural sensitivity/insensitivity framework was developed (figure 1).

Some commonalities were identified across the five themes of the review, with all of the facilitators to good culturally sensitive care drawing closer to a philosophy of compassionate care and conversely barriers to good care moving families and HCPs further away from achieving such a goal. The overarching significance of compassion seems to lie in a two-way navigation in which families and HCPs travel the road of children’s palliative care together. Descriptions from participants revealed that past traumas, fear and cultural differences were eased when they were faced together within a trusting, caring relationship. However, being present for families takes time to listen, understand and respect each other, acknowledging problems and a lack of knowledge. Developing a philosophy of cultural humility within individuals and organisations may help to enhance the building of such mutual understanding and to limit the ‘othering’ of such families.

My own PhD research has involved interviewing 7 HCPs and 3 families using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. A range of settings for care such as hospital, hospice and community have been included. Through my PhD study I am hoping to illuminate the experiences of forced migrant families and those who care for them in the UK. I have been using creative approaches in my research including art and poetry to assess their usefulness when working with potentially marginalised groups discussing sensitive topics. With my advisory groups we have been creating poetry from participants accounts to help raise awareness of their specific needs and experiences. More information and creative outputs from the study can be found here.

Please do contact me if you would like to know more about my research

Mxc523@bham.ac.uk or m.w.clancy@exeter.ac.uk

Marie Clancy is a children’s nurse by background but now works in nursing academia. She is a senior lecturer in the Academy of Nursing at the University of Exeter and studying for her PhD in nursing at the University of Birmingham.

References

Clancy, M. Taylor, J. Bradbury-Jones, C. and Phillimore, J. (2020) A systematic review exploring palliative care for families who are forced migrants. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2020; 00:1–13. DOI: 10.1111/jan.14509.

Flanagan, S. M. and Hancock, B. (2010) 'Reaching the hard to reach' - lessons learned from the VCS (voluntary and community Sector). A qualitative study. BMC Health Service Research, 10 (92).

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Electric Mobility Scooter Helps You Enjoy Life Without Barriers: Shared Electric Mobility Scooter for Seniors

Old Street Compassionate Community, Shilin, Taipei, Taiwan

In December 2021, Old Street Compassionate Community, Shilin introduced the shared electric mobility scooter “Shennong-1” into the community. “Shennong-1” is a service to help the disabled seniors, whether they want to go to the temple to worship God, or go to the MRT station, or to carry something heavy.

Old Street Compassionate Community, Shilin is an innovation in Taipei. In these years, thanks to the Chairman Mr. Yi-Song Ho, who is also Director-General of the association, because of his efforts, Old Street Compassionate Community has become a model of Compassionate Communities in Taiwan. The shared electric mobility scooter “Shennong-1” is also a novel milestone after the cooperation of home medical care with Taipei City Hospital. Dr. Chia-Jen Liu, Secretary General of Taiwan International Compassionate Community Development Association is looking forward to see what effect “Shennong-1” can bring.

Old Street Compassionate Community, Shilin has been cooperating with Yang-Ming Branch, Taipei City Hospital to promote home medical care and home visits and take care of the seniors in the community who have disabilities. Dr. Kuan-Yang Chan, Superintendent of Yang-Ming Branch said the Shared electric mobility scooter for seniors can fulfil the seniors’ mental needs.

Mr. Yi-Song Ho, the Chairman of Taiwan International Compassionate Community Development Association said that his father used to make use of a single seat electric mobility scooter and now the double seats version of the scooter is introduced to help the seniors.

Taipei City Government supports Taipei City Hospital for being the most powerful cooperator of Old Street Compassionate Community, Shilin to provide the seniors in the community with home medical care. The shared electric mobility scooter for seniors introduced by Shennong Temple helps the seniors who have trouble walking go to Sennong Temple and take part in life literacy events. Ms. Ming-Hsuan Hsieh, the Director of Development and Planning Center, Taipei City Hospital thinks that it is a great step forward and Taipei City Hospital will also continue to work hard in the future to cooperate with Shennong Temple to improve the seniors’ health and living in the community.

The shared electric mobility scooter makes the seniors enjoy convenient and healthy life. It is now working steadily and Shennong Temple is planning to build a team of shared electric mobility scooters to help more people with better efficiency.

A link to a YouTube video showcasing the Shared Electric Mobility Scooter for Seniors Initiative can be viewed by clicking here.

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PHPC Tools and Resources

A collection of resources can be found on the PHPCI website, including toolkits, reports events, useful websites to name a few.

Website: https://www.phpci.org/tools

Recently Released Resources!

Links to blogs authored by PHPCI President, Dr. John Rosenberg.

When death has value, so does care.

Community involvement essential to advance palliative care.

Do compassionate cities provide a path to a 'realistic utopia'?

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World Compassionate Communities Online Symposium Recordings

On November 2 2021 PHPCI ran the first World Compassionate Communities Day online symposium. This was a truly international event with speakers from the UK, Canada, India, Africa, Australia and Europe, including special guests from the Integrated Health Team at the World Health Organization; Marie-Charlotte Bouesseau and Shamsuzzoha Babar Syed. The symposium was organised into four themes: Practice, Policy, Research and Evaluation, highlighting the latest developments in the public health and compassionate communities field.

Many thanks to all the session chairs and  all the speakers who gave their time to participate. PHPCI plans to run the symposium every two years (non conference year) and we look forward to the event growing and developing with the input of members. 

PHPCI members can access the recordings of the four sessions in the members section. 

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Recent Publications

Aoun S. Stegmann R, Deleuil R, Momber S, Cuddford L, Phillipps M, Lyon M, Gill F. (2022). “It is a whole different life from the life I used to live”: Assessing parents’ support needs in paediatric palliative care. Children, (9): 322. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9030322

Aoun S, Rumbold B. (2022) Public health approaches to bereavement support. Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care, Abel J, Kellehear A (eds) Oxford University Press.

D'Eer L, Quintiens B, Van den Block L, Dury S, Deliens L, Chambaere K, Smets T, Cohen J. Civic engagement in serious illness, death, and loss: A systematic mixed-methods review. Palliative Medicine, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163221077850 Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35287517.

De Vleminck A, Paul S, Reinius M, Sallnow L, Tishelman C, Cohen J. Engagement of specialized palliative care services with the general public: A population-level survey in three European Countries. Palliative Medicine, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163221079546

Matthys O, Dierickx S, Deliens L, Lapeire L, Hudson P, Van Audenhove C, De Vleminck A, Cohen J. How are family caregivers of people with a serious illness supported by healthcare professionals in their caregiving tasks? A cross- sectional survey of bereaved family caregivers. Palliative Medicine, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163211070228

Payne S, Hudson P, Grande G. Family carers research: What progress has been made? Palliative Medicine, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163211037855

Quintiens B, D'Eer L, Deliens L, Van den Block L, Chambaere K, De Donder L, Cohen J, Smets T. Area-Based Compassionate Communities: A systematic integrative review of existing initiatives worldwide’. Palliative Medicine 2022, 36(3) 422–442. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F02692163211067363

Sawyer JM, Sallnow L. (2022) The evidence for the effectiveness of a public health palliative care approach. Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care, Abel J, Kellehear A (eds) Oxford University Press.

Sawyer JM. (2022) Understanding dying as a focal point for defining an integrative approach to health and social care. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. [e-pub ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaim.2022.100543

Vanderstichelen S, Deliens L. (2022) Complexities and challenges in public health palliative care research. Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care, Abel J, Kellehear A (eds) Oxford University Press.

Vanderstichelen S, Dury S, De Gieter S, Van Droogenbroeck F, De Moortel D, Van Hove L, Rodeyns J, Aernouts N, Bakelants H, Cohen J, Chambaere K, Spruyt B, Zohar G, Deliens L, De Donder L; Compassionate Communities Centre of Expertise (COCO) Consortium. (2022) Researching Compassionate Communities from an interdisciplinary perspective: the case of the Compassionate Communities Centre of Expertise (COCO). Gerontologist. Mar 9:gnac034. [e-pub ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnac034

Vanderstichelen S. 2022. Palliative Care Volunteering: Pressing Challenges in Research. Palliative Medicine. [editorial] https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163221089483

Vandenbogaerde I, De Vleminck A, Cohen J, Verkissen MN, Lapeire L, Ingravallo F, Payne S, Wilcock A, Seymour J, Kars M, Grønvold M, Lunder U, Rietjens J, van der Heide A, Deliens L. Advance care planning-family carer psychological distress and involvement in decision making: the ACTION trial. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002744

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We are pleased to announce that the first Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care has now been published and is available for purchase. Edited by Julian Abel and Professor Allan Kellehear, this important resource has 30 chapters and 44 authors from around the world. It is a comprehensive text, bringing together for the first time a complete picture of the whole field.

The Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care was launched very successfully at two online events. Guest speakers across these launches included Professor Allan Kellehear, Dr. Julian Abel, Dr. Manjula Patel, Dr. Libby Sallnow, Dr. Polly Edmunds, Dr. Joe Sawyer, Dr. John Rosenberg, Dr. Kerrie Noonan, Dr. Jason Mills, Shyla Mills and Professor Samar Aoun.

The Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care is available for order online. You can purchase a copy of the text by clicking here. Copies will also be available for purchase at the upcoming 7th Public Health Palliative Care International conference (PHPCI) in Bruges.

PHPCI members are eligible for a 30% discount on the purchase price of the text if it is ordered online via Oxford University Press, using the promotion code AMPROMD9.

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Journal | Palliative Care and Social Practice

PHPCI has its own academic journal Palliative Care and Social Practice

The primary purpose of this peer-reviewed, open access journal is to raise the research and policy profile of a social model of palliative care. It encourages scholarly articles that challenge current discourse about the process of death, its current care models and practices, and of grief and bereavement. The journal welcomes articles from symptom science, clinical practice, and health services research. However, its aim is also to publish cutting-edge research from the realm of social practice - from public health theory and practice, social medicine, and social work, to social sciences related to dying and its care, as well as policy analysis, criticism, and cultural studies. The journal welcomes reports from work with under-represented groups, community development, and studies of civic engagement in end-of-life issues. The journal accepts a broad range of methodological designs – from trials to ethnography to analysis of existing sources.

The journal is supported by an international editorial board and is a member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All articles are listed on PubMed, PMC and Scopus, and are freely available to read and download.

Any general inquiries about the journal or about prospective submissions for our journal can be directed in the first instance to The Managing Editor, Georgia Patey – SAGE Publications Ltd, London, UK georgia.patey@sagepub.co.uk

View the submission guidelines for details on the submission process, article processing charge and formatting your manuscript.

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From PHPCI Council

On behalf of the PHPCI council, we extend good wishes for the coming months, and we look forward to seeing many of you at the 7th PHPCI conference in Belgium!

President Dr. John Rosenberg (Australia) | Term Ending 2023

Vice President Dr. Libby Sallnow (UK) Term ending 2023

Treasurer Luke Conlon (UK) | Term ending 2023

Membership Secretary Bonnie Tompkins (Canada) | Term ending October 2023

General Secretary Dr. Vicky Jones (New Zealand) | Term ending October 2023

Webmaster Dr. Kerrie Noonan (Australia) | Term ending October 2023

Journal Rep Prof Allan Kellehear (UK) | Term ending October 2023

Ordinary Member Dr. Andrea Grindrod (Australia) | Term ending October 2023

Ordinary Member Dr. Zipporah Ali (Kenya) | Term ending October 2023

Ordinary Member Dr. Eman Hassan (Canada) | Term ending October 2023

Early career researcher representative Dr. Daniel Lowrie | Term ending October 2023

Conference representative Prof Luc Deliens (Belgium) | Term ending October 2023

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Social Media

For questions and inquiries please visit our PHPCI website, by clicking here.

You can also contribute to Public Health Palliative Care International discussion via social media using the following links:

For Facebook - click here

For Twitter - click here

To visit the new PHPCI Linkedin page - click here

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Do you have a story, event or resource that you’d like to share?

We would love to hear about your Public Health Palliative Care initiative! Please send your experiences, stories, events or resources to be included in forthcoming Newsletters to Daniel Lowrie at daniel.lowrie@jcu.edu.au.

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Editorial Team

Dr. Andrea Grindrod and Dr. Daniel Lowrie. Thankyou to Dr. John Rosenberg, Dr. Kerrie Noonan and other members of the PHPCI Council for the assistance with this edition. Thank you also to all article contributors for sharing your ideas and practice examples.

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