Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person & Online
Number of paper presentations	5

Abstract

Palliative care is focused on preventing and relieving physical, emotional, social, and spiritual suffering among adults, children, and families facing life-limiting illness. The aims of palliative care are consistent with the humanitarian mandate to respond to human suffering and a growing body of literature documents the need for palliative care in humanitarian action. Reports by the Lancet Commission, World Health Organization, and Sphere advocate for the inclusion of palliative care in humanitarian interventions yet very few international humanitarian actors recognize it as a priority. There are also concerns that models of palliative care developed in the Global North may not be culturally or contextually appropriate in humanitarian settings.

This panel seeks to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, with a particular focus on panelists from Bangladesh and the Global South, to explore the following questions:

1. How can we build awareness and support for palliative care within the humanitarian sector?
2. How can we move from awareness to commitment in the form of resource allocation, prioritization, and program implementation?
3. What lessons can be gleaned from the experience of those who have attempted to integrate palliative care, particularly practitioners from the Global South?
4. How can we ensure that palliative care in humanitarian action is culturally and contextually appropriate?

Paper presentations