Sharing Sources: Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance

WORLDWIDE HOSPICE PALLIATIVE CARE ALLIANCE

Eighteen million people die in unnecessary pain and distress each year, with around 80% of the world’s population lacking adequate access to the medications needed for hospice and palliative care. The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), a London-based nonprofit established in 2008, seeks to ensure everyone has access to palliative care. 

The organization is currently made up of 347 national and regional hospice and palliative care organizations, as well as affiliate organizations supporting hospice and palliative care, representing 100 countries across the globe. WHPCA believes “that no one with a life-limiting condition, such as cancer or HIV, should live and die with unnecessary pain and distress.” The group’s vision “is a world with universal access to hospice and palliative care.” The alliance works through global advocacy, policy engagement, sharing resources, and raising funds to ensure everyone has equal access to palliative care funded by governments across the world.

WHPCA has an official partnership with the World Health Organization. One of the outcomes of this alliance is the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, an in-depth report that looks at the barriers to palliative care development throughout the world. According to WHPCA research, 80% of people who need hospice and palliative care live in developing countries, and the majority (88%) of children and adults who need services globally are suffering and in pain without equitable access to care. The nonprofit has established direct stakeholder projects in Bangladesh, India, Romania, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe to support individuals and serve as models of care. A recently completed project in Ethiopia and South Africa shares voices of some of the individuals who benefited from an improved end-of-life experience. WHPCA states that developing countries have the greatest burden of disease, yet have low availability of hospice and palliative care services and inadequate access to medications for pain treatment.

The organization’s creation of World Hospice & Palliative Care Day in the fall of each year is a worldwide call to action for all countries to support palliative care as part of universal coverage. This past October the organization created a toolkit for palliative care advocacy. This past month, WHPCA announced its first European Grief Conference, to be held in Denmark in September 2022, to advance and implement “effective and culturally sensitive bereavement care responses across Europe.” The organization also runs eHospice, a news and information resource that spreads the work of stakeholders through articles and studies about hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care across the world.