Strategies for Establishing Palliative Care – Perspectives from Multidisciplinary Discussions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/ijcs.v8i3.451Keywords:
Bereavement, Community health, Palliative care, Program developmentAbstract
Background: Access to palliative care is limited in many low-resource settings, despite being a fundamental component of universal health coverage. This paper presents a practical perspective on initiating and scaling up palliative care services, based on the collective experiences of healthcare professionals from diverse regions.
Methods: Structured multidisciplinary group discussions were conducted during a Fellowship in Palliative Care program and thematically analyzed. Insights were informed by institutional experiences, regional models, and supporting literature.
Results: There were experiential perspectives from ten clinicians and 36 supporting publications. To cultivate awareness and competence, the integration of palliative care into health sciences curricula and continued professional education is recommended. Nurse-led palliative care clinics, community volunteer training, and telemedicine services are identified as scalable, context-sensitive models to extend care beyond traditional settings. Initiatives such as Hope Cafes are proposed to normalize conversations around serious illness and dying and offer supportive environments for patients, caregivers, and the public. Challenges such as limited manpower, inadequate funding, medico-legal constraints, and sociocultural barriers are acknowledged. Solutions suggested include cross-sector partnerships, targeted training, use of digital platforms, and alignment with existing health and social systems. The role of bereavement support and palliative care research is highlighted as essential to holistic palliative care service delivery.
Conclusion: This paper offers a roadmap for institutions and regions aiming to introduce or strengthen palliative care services. Through leveraging available human resources, community structures, and innovative delivery models, a compassionate, culturally sensitive, and scalable palliative care framework can be achieved, even in resource-constrained environments.
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