Abstract
The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) jointly hosted its triennial palliative care conference for Africa with the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA) on 17–20 September 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the heart of the conference stood a common commitment to see patient care improved across the continent. The theme for the conference, ‘The Net Effect: Spanning Diseases, Crossing Borders’, reflected this joint vision and the drive to remember the ‘net effect’ of our work in palliative care—that is, the ultimate impact of the care that we provide for our patients and their families across the disease and age spectrum and across the borders of African countries. The conference, held in Johannesburg, brought together 471 delegates from 34 countries. The key themes and messages from the conference are encapsulated in ten ‘C’s of commitment to political will and support at the highest levels of governance; engaging national, regional, and international bodies; collaboration; diversity; palliative care for children; planning for human resources and capacity building; palliative care integration at all levels; developing an evidence base for palliative care in Africa; using new technologies; and improved quality of care. Participants found the conference to be a forum that challenged their understanding of the topics presented, as well as enlightening in terms of applying best practice in their own context. Delegates found a renewed commitment and passion for palliative care and related health interventions for children and adults with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses within the region. This conference highlighted many of the developments in palliative care in the region and served as a unique opportunity to bring people together and serve as a lynchpin for palliative care provision and development in Africa. The delegates were united in the fact that together we can ‘span diseases,’ ‘cross borders,’ and realise the ‘African Dream’ for palliative care.
Highlights
Palliative care is ‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual’ [1]
The theme of the conference, ‘The Net Effect: Spanning Diseases, Crossing Borders’ reflected both this commitment and the drive to remember the ‘net effect’ of our work in palliative care, that is, the ultimate impact of the care that we provide for our patients and their families, across the disease and age spectrum and across the borders of African countries
The net hangs without lines, representative of the need for palliative care to be inclusive of the linguistic and cultural diversity of patients across Africa, cutting across culture, age and gender, the breadth of the communicable and non-communicable disease (NCD) spectrum, the expanse of life stages, and the need to address the barriers of pain, stigma, and isolation often associated with disease through the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) physical, psychosocial, and spiritual pillars of palliative care [2]
Summary
Palliative care is ‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual’ [1]. Since the Cape Town Declaration in 2002 [4], there have been rapid advances in the development of palliative care in Africa [5], with the commitment to pain relief being a human right and palliative care being integrated into national health policies/strategies This conference provided a platform for sharing and demonstrating significant advances in the provision of palliative care in the region. This commitment from governments, along with the political will to move the agenda for access to palliative care forward, remains an essential component of the WHO public health model for the development of palliative care [9] Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired, Director General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation in Jordan opened the first plenary session by stating in a video address to delegates: ‘Governments are primarily focused on drug control and addiction. This comment reflects a commitment to strengthen existing and developing new partnerships with a range of national, regional, and international bodies
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