The theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day for 2023 is “Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care.”
Towards this, the Department of Palliative Medicine, Christian Medical College Vellore conducted awareness programs for high school students of four schools in Vellore. Palliative care was a new concept to the school children and they actively listened.
During the discussion time, there was active participation and engagement by the school students. Many students even volunteered to identify and help the people with palliative care needs in their neighbourhood. It was heartening to see such compassion and motivation from the younger generation and we believe these are seeds sown to promote compassionate community participation.
Palliative care, in its true sense, should transcend the boundaries of the hospital and address various aspects of the lives of our patients and their families. Often, disease or death of the bread winner leaves a family struggling. The Department of Palliative Medicine tries to identify and help such families by providing monthly ration, supporting children’s education and empowering the bereaved family to be self-sufficient.
This month specially, the support group had a program reinforcing the different components of palliative care provision and how each one could advocate palliative care for those in need and become compassionate communities.