Message from the Chair
and Executive Director
Roberto Wenk, MD (Argentina)
Liliana De Lima, MHA (USA)
Dear readers:
Hello to all. This month we want to highlight three important advocacy campaigns in the field of pain and palliative care:
1) The World Cancer Declaration, an initiative of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), is a plan of action to substantially reduce the global cancer burden by 2020 and to increase the awareness of the adverse effects of cancer in the international political agenda.
The Declaration lists several objectives and goals to be achieved by 2020, which include “Effective pain control measures will be available universally to all cancer patients in pain.
The UICC encourages partnership within the framework of the World Cancer Declaration. To read the Declaration and learn how you can become involved, click the following link:
www.uicc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16259&Itemid=486
The UICC has taken additional steps to implement this goal and has initiated a program inviting several organizations, including IAHPC, and known leaders for their input. Congratulations to UICC for taking this step and for moving it forward.
2) Second, as many of you already know, this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day will take place on October 10th. The World Day – as it is known among the palliative care global community- is celebrated the second Saturday of October every year. IAHPC has, for several years, celebrated and actively supported the World Day and will do so again this year.
The Aims of the World Day are:
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To share our vision to increase the availability of hospice and palliative care throughout the world by creating opportunities to speak out about the issues.
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To raise awareness and understanding of the needs (medical, social, practical, spiritual) of individuals living with life limiting diagnoses and their families.
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To raise funds to support and develop hospice and palliative care services around the world.
Every World Day has a distinctive theme that highlights a specific need or issue relevant to patients and/or care providers.
The theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2009 is
Discovering your Voice.
This Day brings an opportunity for persons living with life-limiting illnesses, their families and carers to make their voices heard about what hospice and palliative care means to them. This is also an opportunity for many people around the world who are unable to access the care they need to raise their voices.
To learn more, share your stories and become involved, please click on www.worldday.org
And last but certainly not least, we wish to highlight the
Joint Declaration for the Recognition of Palliative Care and Pain treatment as Human Rights.
This campaign was launched last year as a collaborative effort between IAHPC and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). We have collected more than 4,500 signatures from individuals and 600 organizations around the globe. A new group was created last month in Facebook to support the Joint Declaration and now has attracted more than 800 members. The Joint Declaration includes seven goals in the field of policy, education, availability and access to opioids for individuals and countries to work on.
The Joint Declaration was recently highlighted during the May, 2009 Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care congress in Vienna, where additional organizations and individuals responded to our invitation to sign.
If you haven’t signed please do! In order to learn more and read the Declaration, visit http://www.hospicecare.com/resources/pain_pallcare_hr/
All these efforts and advocacy initiatives highlight the greater role that the civil society is contributing to shape the global agenda and how the Internet has become a powerful tool to aid in this process. We invite all our readers to become engaged and be part of this great revolution.
Best wishes to all.
Until next month,
Roberto Wenk, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
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