Lessons of solace to travel overseas
The palliative care in the West is not community- based.
KOZHIKODE: The Kerala model of palliative care pioneered by the Pain and Palliative Care Society (PPCS) here, which has won accolades at national and international health care forums, will be adopted by the West soon. Spain and Ireland will take the guidance of the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM), Kozhikode, to train volunteers for the purpose.
The IPM has already established pain and palliative units in other parts of the country, including Manipur, Pondicherry and West Bengal. Countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jordan and Ethiopia are experimenting with the Kerala model.
Dr Suresh Kumar, IPM head, who is coordinating the international link of the programme, told Deccan Chronicle that the state has good number of volunteers. The decision taken by the CPM to promote palliative care had resulted in almost doubling the volunteer force, he pointed out.
On the challenges faced by the movement, he said there should be job permanency at least for over 1,000 community organizers. “Now they are mere volunteers and only if the government institutionalises the movement, it would deliver better results,” he added.
The palliative care in the West is not community- based. “The ground realities in each state and country varies. In some Indian states, volunteers have to be given community-based training,” he said.
On the future of Kerala experiment, Mr Suresh Kumar said that his dream was about a palliative care system sans any volunteers. “If we train two percent of the population, the community itself would be able to take care of its terminally- ill patients,” he said.
Started in a single room at Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, with two volunteers in 1993, the Pain and Palliative Care Society has grown beyond the dreams of the brains behind it.
The PPCS and its arm Neighborhood Network in Palliative Care (NNPC) are accepted models the world over for ensuring better care for patients.
Dr M.R. Rajagopal and Dr Suresh Kumar were instrumental in realising the dream. With two to five lakh trained volunteers and 1,200 community organisers who have undergone three-month training, the state is much ahead in palliative care.