-
Three Days at Alpha Hospice: Where Science Met Compassion
What does compassionate care look like when a patient is breathless, a caregiver is exhausted, or an urgent need arises at home? These questions found expression at the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD)International Conference, jointly organised by Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) and Alpha Palliative Care at Edamuttam, Thrissur, from 9–11 October 2026.
-
Freedom from Pain Is a Fundamental Right
On 10 October 2026, the world marked World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, highlighting the theme ‘Pain Management: An Essential Component of Palliative Care’, the central message highlighted was “Pain Management: An Essential Component of Palliative Care”. Beyond raising awareness of the need to relieve suffering among people who are bed-bound or living with life-limiting illnesses, the day serves as a global reminder of the importance of access to effective…
-
Walking Alongside the Family: A Psychosocial Journey Through Neuropalliative Home Care
In neuro-palliative care, illness is never experienced by the suffering individual alone. Progressive neurological illness gradually changes routines, relationships, roles, and responsibilities within the family. For healthcare professionals, entering a suffering individual’s home often reveals dimensions of misery that may remain invisible within the hospital. This case reflects how a small number of home-based interventions, combined with continued follow-up, can support not only the individual but also the family caring…
-
When Listening Becomes Care
I am a social worker, but when I try to explain what I do in palliative care to others, I often struggle to put it into words. In a field so closely associated with medicine, pain, and survival, I sometimes find it difficult to explain where a social worker fits in. I carry no stethoscope, no prescription pad, nothing that can close a wound or fight an infection.
-
The Biggest Gap in Palliative Care isn’t the accessibility, it’s Awareness
If someone had asked me what palliative care meant a couple of years ago, I would have answered with complete confidence and I would have been completely wrong. Like many people, I believed palliative care simply meant taking your loved one home when treatment had ended. In many ways, that belief was reinforced by the conversations we had during my father’s illness.
-
Dignity in Life, Dignity in Death
Are you afraid of death? Are you ready for it? Most of us are afraid of the unknown. Death is often spoken about in hushed voices, as though discussing it might somehow make it more real. We avoid conversations about dying, even though death is the inevitable end of every life. Perhaps what we need is not to avoid death, but to prepare ourselves to face its reality with acceptance…
-
Between Empty Chairs and Weathered Homes: A Psycho-Oncologist’s Journey
Today, during a session with an elderly man receiving palliative care from our team, his 23-year-old son asked me a heartbreaking question: “Does feeling like my father is already gone and preparing myself for his death make me a bad son?” “What makes you say that you are preparing for his death?” I asked. He mentioned that he had informed their relatives back in Bihar that “there is no more…
-
IAPC and Alpha Palliative Care Organise International Conference on Palliative Care, 9-11 October 2026
IAPC, in partnership with Alpha Palliative Care, will organise an International Conference on Palliative Care from 9–11 October 2026 at Alpha Hospice, Edamuttam, Thrissur, Kerala, commemorating World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. The conference, themed “Pain Management: An Essential Part of Palliative Care,” will feature scientific sessions, a hospice tour and walkathon. Registrations are open.
-
IAPC Gold Medal for Nurses 2026: Step 1 Results
IAPC Gold Medal for Nurses 2026: Step 1 Results We are delighted to announce the results of the Step 1 online screening test for IAPC’s Gold Medal for Nurses 2026. A total of 139 nurses registered, of whom 101 were eligible to sit the screening test, held between 1 and 31 August 2026. highest number of applicants were from Karnataka and Kerala (21 each), with Rajasthan in second place (17…
-
Every Home Is a Lesson in Life
Today’s home care visits to seven homes have left a deep weight in our hearts. We met children and daughters-in-law caring for mothers in their 90s, despite the struggles of poverty, age and illness. We met a 90-year-old mother caring for her son, who is over 60 years, and suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
-
When the Language of Suffering Fails Us: A Clinician’s Reflection
Visible injuries are easy to name. A fracture appears on an X-ray; a wound can be dressed. They draw attention, intervention, and often sympathy. What remains less visible is harder to recognise: emotional trauma, grief, and a quieter, more diffuse form of suffering; existential distress. Years of working in palliative care have shaped my understanding of suffering, familiarised me with the language of existential concerns, the importance of self-care, and…
-
Gratitude
He was 39 and his cancer progressed faster than the family could fathom. Amidst anger, denial, bargaining and blame there was a man battling excruciating and unbearable pain. Like molten lava the pain engulfed his entire being. I remember his humour in middle of a pain crisis, his flashing a smile every time we greeted him good morning on the morning rounds.
nioiapc@gmail.com
+91 94466 93898
Stay connected
“Join US in Bringing Compassion to Those Who Need It Most.
Dr. Geeta Joshi
President, IAPC
Together, let us make a difference in the lives of people living with serious and life-limiting illnesses.
Your support can help strengthen the efforts of the IAPC. Be a part of the movement.
Help bring comfort, dignity and hope to individuals and families in need of palliative care.”
