What is Palliative Care?
IAPC defines palliative care as: “Palliative care is the active total care applicable from the time of diagnosis, aimed at improving the quality of life of patients and their families facing serious life-limiting illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering from pain and other physical symptoms as well as psychological, social, and spiritual distress through socially acceptable and affordable interventions”.
About Indian Association of Palliative Care
The Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) is a registered Public Trust and Society and was formed on 16th March, 1994 in Ahmedabad, in consultation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Government of India as a national forum to connect, support and motivate individuals and institutions involved in palliative care.
Since then, the IAPC has been working as the National Umbrella organization for Palliative Care in India. It has over 2500 registered life members which includes Individual Members, Institutional Members and Overseas members.
Our Vision- “Freedom from health-related suffering for every individual in India through access to Palliative Care.”
Our Mission: “To serve as a national forum to inspire, inform and empower people, governments and medical organisations to improve the availability, accessibility and affordability of palliative care, thereby advancing safe, high-quality care.”
What we do: Train professionals and volunteers, lead advocacy and awareness initiatives, bring out publications, and help establish palliative care networks across the country.
The IAPC has been actively working towards improving the delivery of quality palliative care in India through –
- Implementing palliative care educational programs for health care professionals;
- Creating and organizing awareness programs for the public and society at large;
- Engaging in advocacy with the Government and other relevant agencies both within India and across the world;
- Collaborating with both the Central and State Governments to develop and implement the National and State level palliative care policies to ensure that palliative care is accessible and affordable to those who need it;
- Assist in implementing the amended Narcotic rules to ensure that morphine and other opioids are freely available and accessible to those in need of it.
Governance Structure
The IAPC is governed by the President, the Secretary and the Treasurer. This Core Committee is assisted by the Executive Committee Members, and the Administration Team. Please click here to view the Bylaws of the association to know more about the aims, objectives and essential rules and regulations of the IAPC.
IAPC’s Current Projects:
1. Academic Projects
- The IAPC Foundation, Fellowship & Certificate Courses
- Fellowship in Home and Hospice Palliative Care
- Foundation Course in Essentials of Palliative Care
- Foundation Course in Palliative Care Pharmacy
- Foundation Course in the Physiotherapy- Palliative Care Interface
- Foundation Course in Palliative Care for Volunteers
- Foundation Course in the Essentials of Psychosocial Issues in Palliative Care
- Certificate Course in Basics of Palliative Care
- Advanced Nursing Skills in Palliative Care
- Certificate Course in Palliative Care for Nursing Faculty
- IAPC Academy Lecture Series
- IAPC Academy of Palliative Medicine
The IAPC Academy of Palliative Medicine (IAPC- APM) was established on 1 May, 2022, under the aegis of IAPC and in partnership between IAPC, Suprajit Foundation (a Charitable Trust) and Bangalore Hospice Trust –Karunashraya (a Charitable Trust).
The common interest to develop palliative care in India, and the acknowledgement and recognition of the imminent need in the sector to build competencies and capacities within the domain of palliative care culminated in the formation of the Academy of Palliative Medicine. The purpose of creating the APM is to therefore create an alternate path to specialist palliative medicine training and accreditation in India.
Currently, only few training opportunities exist for specialist palliative medicine training with several institutions finding it difficult to start and offer MD Palliative Medicine program due to stringent Medical Council of India requirements.
APM strives to create a nationally valid qualification (Fellow of Academy of Palliative Medicine – FAPM) that could create specialist level employment opportunities for the existing and new doctors in palliative medicine. It may provide opportunities to the non-medical college institutions in India to participate in specialist palliative medicine training. It will create a pathway for MD/MS/DM/MCh doctors in other clinical specialities practising palliative care to become a palliative medicine specialist. It will also provide a structured training pathway to MBBS doctors practicing palliative care for many years to become a palliative medicine specialist. The overall impact of the APM is to augment the capacity to provide specialist palliative care through palliative care training at the specialist level.
Click here to visit the IAPC-APM website
2. Journal
The Indian Journal of Palliative Care (IJPC) is a quarterly publication by the IAPC, so as to promote Research in palliative care and the subsequent dissemination of knowledge across the country.
The Indian Journal of Palliative Care is an interdisciplinary, a peer reviewed and an open access journal.
The Journal is indexed with, or included in the following:
- DOAJ,
- Emerging Sources Citation Index,
- Indian Science Abstracts,
- PubMed Central,
- Scimago Journal Ranking,
- SCOPUS, Web of Science.
Click here to access the portal.
3. Conferences
The IAPC hosts and organizes the IAPC’s Annual International Conference, every February. This conference provides palliative care professionals with an opportunity to network, collaborate and share domain specific knowledge and best practices. Additionally, the conference serves as an international platform to generate awareness and promote education and research in palliative care.
The conference hosts an average of 500 delegates from both India and abroad, and boasts of a pool of National and International faculty from the field of palliative care participating in the conference each year.
4. Newsletter
The IAPC publishes an exciting and informative monthly newsletter to share and disseminate relevant news from the field of palliative care. It features the list of IAPC’s activities, the upcoming events, stories, experiences and other interesting reads related to palliative care. Please click here to read our newsletters.
Benefits of IAPC Membership
- You can attend Annual Conferences of IAPC by paying Registration fees at discount rates.
- You can contest for Best Paper / Poster Award.
- You can become Central Council member, can represent your zone in IAPC meetings.
- You can get elected to the posts of office bearer and President of IAPC.
- You can actively participate in various activities of IAPC, share your expertise, knowledge and other skills for advocacy, awareness and education of Palliative Medicine.
- You will have voting rights and can elect representative from your zone / state / city.
- You can be Editor of Indian Journal of Palliative Care.
- You could be selected to represent IAPC in various Government meetings.
- You will get a chance to become National Palliative care faculty based on your experience and qualifications.