“Emerging Palliative Care Developments in the World”
11-13 November, 2013
Yerevan, Armenia
The International Palliative Care conference was held on November 11-13, 2013 in Yerevan with the participation of specialists from Eastern European, Central Asian and former Soviet Union countries.
The Conference was organized by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia with the support of the East-East Beyond Borders Program and aimed to discuss the progress made in palliative care in Armenia since 2009, share knowledge and expertise of the represented countries, and develop recommendations and strategies to further integrate and strengthen palliative care in Armenia.
The Conference brought together around 15 leading international experts from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Albania, Georgia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and more then 70 local experts, doctors, nurses, professors, government officials, social workers and palliative care specialists from Armenia.
A three-day Conference aimed at developing a framework to integrate palliative care into national policy. Through working group discussions the participants aimed to find solutions to resolve the unnecessary barriers for prescribing opioids, to provide patients access to pain relief medication, and develop/ integrate palliative care basic training modules for nurses, physicians, social workers and psychologists.
During the Conference a range of insights, ideasn and best practices on how to promote the palliative care field in Armenia were presented. This was achieved through participatory panel discussions and workshops guided by international and local professionals involved in providing institutional and national leadership in the integration of palliative care in their respective countries. During the second day public awareness campaign highlighted the real stories of patients suffering from pain in Armenia.
At the plenary and working sessions, participants, particularly NGOs, health professionals and policy makers engaged in an active discussion around important issues such as current trends in palliative care development in post-soviet countries, palliative care as a human right, introducing best practices for palliative care services, building capacity for palliative care field, and using effective advocacy tools to achieve policy and social change, as well as Armenian experience in introducing palliative care pilot services. At the end of the conference, all working groups came up with certain recommendations which shall later be developed by local specialists. The developed recommendations cover four major fields; palliative care budgeting sources/ international & external resources; eliminating potential legal barriers to change the practice; choosing from different models of palliative care- integration into clinic, long-term and home-care settings; and developing academic curricula for palliative care specialists. The active participation of professionals demonstrated a strong commitment to continue working on the recommendations and ensure the development and integration of palliative care in our health system. It was a delight to watch people with different backgrounds taking an active role in modeling palliative care services for Armenia.
The Conference culminated in drafting a joint Declaration, which presents the recommendations developed during the conference and the statement about the importance of including palliative care into a health system of Armenia. When signed, the Declaration will be submitted to the government of the Republic of Armenia.
The Declaration is open for signatures. To sign on, please contact Anahit Papikyan.
Please join us to bring a change to the lives of people who need our support.
OSFA Team