Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2010
Vietnam's palliative care initiative: successes and challenges in the first five years.
In 2005, Vietnam's Ministry of Health (MoH) launched a palliative care initiative that uses the World Health Organization (WHO) public health strategy for national palliative care program development. With international financial and technical support, the initiative has made significant early progress. ⋯ Many challenges must be overcome to reach the goal of access for all to essential palliative care services that are integrated into the systems of cancer care, HIV/AIDS care, and primary care. Going forward, crucial aspects of the initiative will be continued commitment to palliative care by the MoH, careful planning and targeted funding that address each part of the WHO public health strategy, ongoing expert technical support, and collaboration among international technical and financial supporters.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2010
Expanding the reach of palliative care to community-based home care programs.
This article describes a pilot project, run over a two-year period in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It was aimed at assessing the impact of a model of introducing a palliative care component and professional supervision of community caregivers on the quality of care given to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The use of the African Palliative Care Association African Palliative Outcome Scale as an assessment tool is outlined, and the challenges and outcomes encountered by the various role players are listed. The overall conclusion is that this model is a cost-effective way of increasing access to palliative care in resource poor settings.