The Southern African region joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD), on 6 October, 2007. This is a day when millions of people around the world celebrate, support and raise awareness about the global hospice and palliative care effort and need.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines palliative care as the active, total care of patients whose disease no longer responds to curative treatment.

The theme for this year’s WHPCD is care across the ages – from children to older people. This highlights that people of all ages need access to hospice and palliative care and people of different ages have different needs.

The HIV and AIDS epidemic has rapidly increased the numbers of people needing hospice and palliative care in the region.

Issues journalists should address:-

• Raise public awareness about the importance of hospice and palliative care for people living with HIV.

1. More than 50 million people die every year around the world, and although approximately 60 percent of these individuals would benefit from hospice and palliative care, many are unable to access these services. How can the media lobby and advocate for hospice and palliative care needs to be included explicitly in national health policies? Journalists can also lobby for the increased availability of hospice and palliative care.

• How can hospice and palliative care transform the lives of people living with HIV? What are the needs (medical, social, spiritual or economic) of the different age groups from children to the older people? Are their needs being met by the families and communities around them?
• Journalists can carry out interviews with people in home based care programmes and highlight how they have benefited from hospice and palliative care.
• What are the issues that affect the provision of hospice and palliative care in the region? Are there adequate resources for care givers to use in assisting the people in need of palliative care? For example, in Zimbabwe where there are shortages of basic commodities, drugs and protective accessories like gloves, journalists can do an assessment of how this has affected both care givers and their clients.
• A variety of activities is lined up in various countries in the region to commemorate this day. Journalists can find out about the activities taking place in different countries by visiting this website, http://www.worldday.org/events/events_africa_2007.asp?offset=10

Sources

1. www.worldday.org/documents/world_day_get_involved_2007_pdf

2. http://www.worldday.org/about_world_day_2007.asp

3. http://www.helpstartshere.org/Default.aspx?PageID=464

4. www.hospiceinformation.info/factsandfigures.asp Facts and Figures 2005

5. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=what+is+hospice+and+palliative+care&fr=yfp-t-309&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8