New research: Guidance on setting up palliative care public health programmes
01 November 2012
Barcelona. Image: Wikimedia Commons
Recommendations on how to design and implement national and regional palliative care public health programmes have been published by the Catalan Institute of oncology, a WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Palliative Care Programmes.
A paper published recently online in the journal BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care summaries recommendations from the WHO Collaborating Centre based at the Catalan Institute of Oncology.
As part of its work as a collaboration centre, the Catalan Institute of Oncology offers support and consultancy to countries that want to implement public palliative care programmes, especially in lesser developed countries in Europe and Latin America. The centre has three other areas of work:
- Study, design and assess European palliative care policies.
- Work alongside other Spanish palliative care programmes and with the National Health System to provide support for lesser developed countries.
- Produce evidence and knowledge: work towards the publication of guides, resources and work tools, and provide support for assessing other palliative care programmes.
The paper outlines key considerations in the process of implementing a
public health programme, and discusses how palliative care planning
should be incorporated at all levels of the healthcare system and
adapted to the cultural and organisational status of the system.