Learning about PACED by Inna Babina, Communications director.

PACED (The Foundation for Palliative Care Education, UK) was established in 2017 to support palliative care professionals in Central Asia, Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic countries in acquiring knowledge and exchanging experiences. In 2023-2024 alone, 283 professionals from 32 countries participated in PACED educational initiatives.

They were physicians, nurses, psychologists, social care professionals, spiritual support specialists, heads of hospices, medical and social institutions, and leaders of nonprofit organisations.

The PACED Team recently released the 2023-2024 Annual Report. Read it here to learn more about the areas of the foundation’s work, the results achieved, and the community of palliative care professionals from countries where PACED operates.

The PACED approach combines knowledge dissemination, education and training, building bridges and collaboration, research and analytics. Based on this conception, recent key activities offered participants a wide range of opportunities to enrich their experience and skills:

The webinar series ‘Holistic Approach to Pain in Palliative Care’

This three-part series brought together three distinguished experts: Dr. Guida Da Ponte (Portugal), Prof. Nicoleta Mitrea (Romania), and Dr. Narine Movsisyan (Armenia). The series covered topics such as understanding psychological pain, pain assessment, and opioid therapy. Webinar recordings are available for free on the PACED YouTube channel.

The webinar series on the current status of palliative care in countries where PACED operates

Professional teams from Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, and Kazakhstan shared their insights on developing systemic support for people with life-threatening or end-of-life conditions. Event recordings are available in English, Russian and some local languages on the PACED YouTube channel. Also, detailed webinar summaries were published on paced.org.uk.

The Roundtable ‘Paediatric Palliative Care: 100,000 Children in PACED Countries’ in collaboration with ICPCN

Palliative care leaders from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, and Latvia, with expert support from Julia Downing, ICPCN Executive Director, examined the zone of proximal development in paediatric palliative care and discussed how the international professional community can help overcome existing obstacles. A detailed summary is available on paced.org.uk, and a video recording is available on the PACED YouTube channel.

The digest series for palliative care professionals in collaboration with ehospice

Monthly the PACED team publishes a digest of international materials and news in palliative care and related fields. Several issues were also published in ehospice, a globally run news and information resource from the world of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care.

Participation in the CODE-YAA project (Collaboratively Developed Culturally Appropriate and Inclusive Assessment Tool for Palliative Care Education) and representation of the interests of PACED countries

CODE-YAA is an EU-funded project that aims to set a gold standard for high-quality education and training in palliative care. It is part of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) programme.

Professional Mobility Grants Programme

The programme supports professionals in expanding their expertise through participation in global conferences, covering expenses like travel, accommodation, and registration. 32 applications from 8 countries were received. Yulia Streletskaya (Kazakhstan), an anesthesiologist-resuscitator and head of the Respiratory Support and Palliative Care Centre at the Omirge Sen Public Foundation was recognised as the winner. She attended the 6th Maruzza International Congress on Paediatric Palliative Care in Italy. The next launch of the programme will be announced additionally.

The Foundation Team is open to various modes of collaboration and joint contributions to the future of palliative care. Please feel free to contact PACED at info@paced.org.uk.

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ehospice is proud to be a communications partner with PACED and we regularly republish articles from their sight. Working together we seek to increase awareness of and access to hospice and palliative care programmes.

PACED articles recently published in ehospice include:

https://ehospice.com/editorial_posts/women-will-save-the-world-i-believe-in-it/

https://ehospice.com/international_posts/gradually-we-are-reclaiming-our-place-in-the-sun-gulnara-kunirova/

https://ehospice.com/inter_childrens_posts/today-if-a-doctor-in-kazakhstan-decides-to-become-a-palliative-care-professional/

https://ehospice.com/inter_childrens_posts/its-a-part-of-the-world-we-all-live-in-adopting-an-ostrich-pose-is-utterly-useless/

https://ehospice.com/international_posts/picking-up-the-pace-of-education-in-eastern-europe-and-central-asia/