Announcements / Messages from IAPC

IAPC announces scholarships worth Rs. 1 lakh for IAPCON 2023

On behalf of the IAPC, Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, President, IAPC, is excited to announce a travel grant of Rs 10,000 each to 10 of the best abstracts submitted at the 30th Annual International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPCON 2023). 

The scholarship will be open to IAPC members. The winners of the scholarship will be selected by the Scientific Committee, IAPCON 2023. 

Dr Bhatnagar shares, “With this scholarship, we hope that our members will have the added opportunity to participate in this intellectual academic fest. This scholarship (travel grant) is one of the ways in which the IAPC strives to motivate and encourage our youngsters to present their work on a global platform“. 

Further details about the scholarship will be announced shortly!

IAPCON 2023 will be a physical conference at Bengaluru, organised by Karunashraya. The main conference is scheduled to be conducted over two and half days (Friday, 10th February 2023, to Sunday, 12th February 2023) with six major tracks and three minor tracks. Pre-conference workshops are scheduled for Thursday, 9th February, 2023.

Please visit the conference website for further details and to register for the conference. 

WHPCD 2022 Update: Call for submissions to share your community’s best practices of Good Grief; Launch of an updated Toolkit

The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) has announced a call for submission to share your community’s best practices of Good Grief, and has also updated this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day’s (WHPCD) toolkit, which is rich with resources. 

The call invites submission of stories of compassion, experiences and innovations from communities worldwide that honour and bring healing and hope. The team at WHPCA shares, “Submit your 250 word (maximum) Good Grief profile and photo (if possible) showcasing your community’s successful grief support programs and memorialization initiatives to  info@thewhpca.org, before Saturday, 10th September 2022, to be featured on our website, e hospice and World Day 2022 social media”.

The WHPCA team shares that their online tool kit has also been updated and will provide users with social media resources such as suggested social media content for one to adapt, a media release template, a template for writing to the government to advocate for palliative care, a document with fundraising hints and tips etc.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. This year’s WHPCD will be celebrated on Saturday, 8th October 2022, with the theme, ‘Healing Hearts and Communities’.

Don’t forget to submit your entries before Saturday, 10th September 2022, and to also download your Digital campaign toolkit and other relevant resources to pace up your WHPCD events and activities!

Call for Support: Your 2 minutes = Someone’s entire lifetime of Peace, Comfort and Dignity!

The IAPC requests you to spare just two minutes of your valuable time to submit / update the details of your palliative care services in the IAPC’s National Palliative Care Directory.

Steps to show your support:

  1. Please visit the IAPC’s National Palliative Care Directory and select the State from the drop down menu to check details of your center.
  2. If you need to add / update details of your center, then please visit the Submit/Update details of your PC center page on the IAPC website and submit the relevant details.
  3. After entering the relevant details, please click the ‘Submit’ button to record your responses.

Please do remember that your two minutes will make an invaluable difference in someone’s entire lifetime, as patients and caregivers, along with your colleagues will then have access to palliative care services when they need it the most!

Come on, donate your time to be a bridge in alleviating the suffering of our patients from across the country. Let no one be left behind!

IAPC and SMA-Nirvana’s ‘Singing for the Stars’ will now be presented twice a month

  1. National, Multilingual program: 12th August, 2022, at 3:50 p.m.
  2. Regional program dedicated to our friends from North East India: 25th August, 2022, at 3:50 p.m.

We are delighted that the IAPC and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy Nirvana’s (SMA Nirvana) musical collaboration has been well accepted and is being enjoyed by our palliative care community from across the country. This warm acceptance and multiple requests, have motivated us to begin offering regional programs every month to cater to India’s rich and diverse language needs, in addition to the already existing monthly national, multilingual program.

We invite you to join us for our August’s evening of harmonies, scheduled as below.

Join us at 3:50 p.m. on Friday, 12th August, 2022, to relax and unwind with Ms Himangi Vishwaroop’s multilingual musical program.

Block your dates to join us in our regional program dedicated to our friends from North East India on Thursday, 25th August, 2022, at 3:50 p.m. Further details will be shared shortly.

Both these evenings are dedicated to our palliative care patients and their caregivers, and the palliative care professionals from across the country, each of whom is a star in themselves.

Don’t forget to tune in on 12th August, 2022, and 25th August, 2022, for a musical blast. 

Update from the July event:

Our first regional program dedicated to our friends from West Bengal was a huge success, filled with smiles and cheers. The melodious evening was presented by Ms Aindrila Chatterjee on Friday, 15th July, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. (via Zoom). We congratulate and thank our colleagues, Dr Arkanil Gain (Junior Resident, AIIMS, New Delhi), Dr Saswati Mukherjee (Medical Officer, ESI Institute of Pain Management, Sealdah, ESI Hospital), Ms Bani Garang (Nurse, Ruma Abdoena Hospice) and Dr A Latha (Faculty, College of Nursing, AIIMS Jodhpur) for their soulful singing and for their enthusiastic participation!

The IAPC would also like to thank our champions from West Bengal, Dr Debashish Jatua, Ms Debtirtha Dutta, Dr Gargi Nandi, Ms Meheli Chakraborty, Dr Rakesh Roy, Dr Shrikant Atreya, and Dr Sripurna Mandal, for their support in organising this event. This event would not have been possible if not for the support from each of you.

Please click here to watch a recording of this session.

Our monthly national multilingual program was an energy packed session, and was delivered by Mr Kumaran Muthuraman, a Performing Artist and a Musician, on Saturday, 30 July, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom. Mr Muthuraman kept the audience grooving as he presented songs in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. We congratulate and thank our colleagues, Dr B K Sharma (Hon. Consultant, RST Regional Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Nagpur), Dr Dibyendu Roy (Cancer Rehabilitation Consultant, Apex Hospital, Varanasi), and Ms Sneha (Nursing Aide, Annai Adhuragam Hospice, Kumbakonam) for their melodious singing and their enthusiastic participation!

Please click here to watch a recording of this session.

The IAPC’s Careers page has been updated

It is exciting to share that palliative care from across the country is growing and developing with each day. Head over to the IAPC’s ‘View job vacancy’ page to view the vacancies in palliative care from across the country.

We invite you to also be a part of this development by helping improve the availability and access to palliative care by sharing the details of vacancies at your center. Leverage IAPC’s National Platform to submit a vacancy from your center.

‘Saath Saath Helpline’: India’s free palliative care helpline

Saath-Saath Helpline: 1800-202-7777, is the first of its kind National, Free-of-cost Palliative care helpline. The helpline offers non-judgmental listening services to palliative patients and their caregivers, or to a patient’s physician, and connects them to the nearest palliative care center.

The helpline has 26 partner organisations working across 17 States and Union territories viz; Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kashmir and West Bengal. Volunteers from Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) and Cipla Palliative Care and Training Centre (CPC) attend the calls in four shifts to either provide information, offer Psycho-emotional support or to refer the caller to a partner organisation.

The helpline provides service through call-in on a phone line and works 6 days a week (Mon-Sat), 10 am to 6 pm.

You can offer your support by informing patients about this helpline and refer those who are in need of such services.