The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) and the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) look forward to welcoming delegates to Kampala, Uganda, from 16-19 August 2016 for the 5th International African Palliative Care Conference.
The conference theme is: ‘Hospice and Palliative Care: Resolution to Action – Differentiated Care for Diverse Communities’. This echoes a vision to disseminate ideas and research evidence to move to action faster and more effectively in the wake of the 2014 World Health Assembly Resolution on palliative care.
Delegates will take stock of the gains realised since the previous International African Palliative Care Conference, jointly hosted by APCA and the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA) in September 2013.
Aim and objectives
This conference will bring together palliative care providers, people accessing care and their families, researchers, donors, development partners, government representatives and education institutions from Africa and across the globe to share best practices and research results with a view to improving access to quality palliative care on the continent.
Conference tracks
The four conference tracks will cover current priority areas and emerging issues to strengthen the health systems that African patients rely upon for physical, social, psychological/emotional and spiritual support.
Track 1: ‘Palliative care, human rights, policies and legislation’ will focus on areas including: Universal Health Coverage and palliative care as a human right, African palliative care in the global context, stakeholder responsibilities, governance and leadership, enhancing patients’ and families’ rights and ensuring access to justice, increasing access to analgesic medications, and palliative care advocacy.
Track 2: ‘Palliative care services’ will include: describing quality palliative care services, medications, service innovation, palliative care for minority groups and children, legal aspects and other emerging areas, engaging the community, developing centres of excellence, promoting disease prevention, and the continuum of care from the cradle to bereavement across different disease conditions.
Track 3: ‘Positioning palliative care in the global, regional, national and local health agendas to ensure its sustainability’ will deal with the role of the media in improving access to palliative care services, branding and marketing of palliative care, working with patients and families, resource mobilization and sustainability, and collaboration and partnerships.
Track 4: ‘The evidence base for palliative care’ will look at quality improvement and evaluation, sharing best practice, identifying research priorities and exploring collaboration, capacity building, ensuring that research is used in decision making, and inclusion of palliative care in health information management systems.
Important dates
- Call for abstracts open: 24 November 2015
- Abstract submission deadline: 1 April 2016
- Notification of acceptance: 15 May 2016 (subject to change).
Delegates interested in presenting at the conference are encouraged to submit an abstract via the conference website (select ‘Call for Abstracts’ under the ‘Scientific Programme’ tab on the left hand side of the home page).
Pre-conference workshops
The conference programme will be complemented by a rich pre-conference schedule. Three pre-conference workshops are planned:
Second African Ministers of Health session on palliative care (by invitation only)
This session follows the first African Ministers of Health session on palliative care held in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the 2013 APCA/HPCA African Palliative Care conference.
At this session, Ministers unanimously adopted a consensus statement for palliative care integration into health systems in Africa.
The 2016 second African Ministers of Health session on palliative care will aim to share more recent global, regional and national developments in palliative care including the WHA Resolution.
It will also be a forum through which ministers will share progress made in their countries, exchange lessons and best practices in alignment with the six objectives of the 2013 consensus statement and WHA Resolution.
Ministers will also share plans for increasing access to quality palliative care services for the next three to five years.
Pre-conference workshop for professional councils and heads of teaching institutions
This session will target the deans and heads of universities, nursing schools, schools of social work and other leaders of health and social care teaching institutions.
It will also target professional councils such as medical and dental practitioner’s councils, nurses and midwives councils, law councils and others.
The aim of the workshop is to facilitate the exchange of lessons for the integration of palliative care in teaching institutions with a view to influencing greater interest and enthusiasm among institutions that have not integrated.
The workshop will also aim to influence professional councils to become active partners in ensuring adequate human resources for the provision of palliative care in their countries.
Pre-conference Research workshop
This will aim to evaluate progress in palliative care research since the workshop in September 2013 as well as share some of the outstanding research projects accomplished. The workshop will also facilitate the identification of new research priorities.
Donors’ session
This session which will bring together previous, current and future palliative care donors and development partners to review the funding situation for palliative care in Africa, as well as plan future funding together.
Some of those to be invited include: USAID, CDC (PEPFAR), DFID, European Union (EU), True Colours Trust in the UK, French Development Agency, WHO, Open Society Foundations (OSF), American Cancer Society (ACS), American International Health Alliance/Twinning Center, EMMS International and others.
Visit the conference website to submit your abstract.
We look forward to welcoming you to Uganda!
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