“The man I visit is 75, lives alone, and waits for us every week. We’ve decided to take our friends to help clean his house once in a while and take him to the beach. He hasn’t been outside for so long.”
“I have become more compassionate and attentive to my parents. The patient I visit helped me understand the true meaning of family connections and being there for each other.”
“My patient is a 105-year-old lady who has now become like a grandmother to me.”
These are reflections shared by a few young college students during their monthly review session at the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM WHO CC), as part of the Foundation Programme in Psychosocial Support. Every week, they gather to share stories from their patient visits – the small acts of companionship, the quiet discoveries, and the emotional landscapes they navigate.
Who said our youngsters are apathetic? Who said they are interested only in fun, disconnected from social realities, or indifferent to others’ suffering?
Week after week, these youngsters prove such assumptions wrong. With warmth, humility, and a deep sense of responsibility, they show that empathy is not fading, it is thriving, especially among the young.
At IPM, we have long spoken about total care in palliative practice — care that attends not only to physical but also to social, psychological, and spiritual needs. Yet, over time, it became clear that the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions often remain the most overlooked.
In many cases, the informal social support network of patients — friends, neighbours, and even volunteers — lacks the confidence or skills to engage meaningfully with emotional and existential distress. Recognizing this gap, IPM launched the Foundation Programme in Psychosocial Support, a community-based initiative designed to nurture the skills needed to accompany people in the final phase of life with compassion, presence, and understanding.
Now in its sixth batch, the programme has seen sustained growth and remarkable engagement. Although open to all, nearly 80% of participants are young college students, most already part of the Students’ Initiative in Palliative Care (SIPC) network.
The programme follows a participatory model that combines learning, reflection, and real-world engagement:
- Monthly sessions on key aspects of psychosocial and spiritual care
- Weekly patient visits, in pairs, ensuring companionship and shared reflection
- Weekly mentoring meetings at IPM with senior volunteers and nurses who guide and support the students’ learning
What makes this initiative meaningful is not only its sustainability but also the transformation it brings — both to those who receive care and to those who offer it. These young volunteers are learning that care is not a task but a relationship. They are discovering that presence, listening, and small acts of kindness can restore dignity and meaning to the lives of those facing the end of life.
Growing Roots Beyond IPM
Encouraged by its success, this programme has now evolved into a partnership initiative between the Institute of Palliative Medicine (WHO Collaborating Centre for Country Capacity Building in Palliative Care and Long-Term Care) and several community palliative care organizations across Kerala.
In this collaborative model, IPM serves as the knowledge partner and mentor, while the partnering community units take the lead in mobilising volunteers, facilitating training, and coordinating patient engagement. This ensures that learning remains embedded within local realities.
It is inspiring to see the same vigour and commitment reflected in volunteers joining the programme through the partnering organizations. Across different districts, they spend time offering companionship to patients and uncovering simple yet profound human stories — memories and experiences that patients themselves had long forgotten.
Through their gentle presence and curiosity, these volunteers help evoke narratives that give life its coherence and meaning — stories of childhood, cherished moments, turning points and milestones, relationships that shaped them, and reflections on legacy.
Each story shared becomes a reminder that even in frailty, life remains rich with meaning, memory, and connection. For many patients, these conversations are like holding up a mirror to their lives — helping them see that they have lived, loved, and mattered.
A Call for Compassionate Collaboration
As the programme continues to grow, IPM welcomes collaborations with institutions and communities interested in strengthening psychosocial support in palliative care.
Through this experiment, IPM has learned that psychosocial and spiritual care cannot remain optional or secondary — they are central to the idea of total care. Without them, care remains only half attended.
Author:
Saif Mohammed
Consultant, Institute of Palliative Medicine WHO CC
linkedin.com/in/saifpalliativecare
This is a beautifully written inspiring piece. It obviously provides such benefits for both the visitors and the visited.