World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) is celebrated every year on the second Saturday of October, this year 8 October 2022. We have had many events registered on the global events map over the years and this has helped the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) measure the impact and reach of WHPCD and provide guidance if needed.
The theme for 2022 is Healing Hearts and Communities. The experience of grief and the need to heal unites humans worldwide. We would love to know what you have planned to do to mark the annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. Grief unites humans globally because everyone will experience grief at some point in their lifetime. Once people experience grief, there is a need to heal and there has never been a time in recent history where compassionate communities have been needed more than now because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than six million deaths have been recorded because of the pandemic. This has resulted in millions of families and caregivers grieving the deaths of family and friends and experiencing social isolation and property destruction.
Event Suggestions:
We hope your plans for the WHPCD events are going as well as possible. If you are yet to plan for an event, here are a few suggestions.
- You can work toward developing compassionate communities where you live and helping those experiencing grief to share their journey and grief experience and try to find ways toward healing and restoration for the grieving. Then share how you’ve developed community-based bereavement support.
- You can hold a virtual event with your members and key spokespeople and experts on grief. This can be an informative and enriching session to learn the best approaches to dealing with Grief and loss and how to apply this in your practice.
- Host an event/meeting physical or virtual with policymakers and key stakeholders. Use this opportunity as a Global Day of Action to call upon governments and policymakers and healthcare providers to prioritise and implement national strategies for bereaved populations based on a public health approach.
- Dedicate an open day for the grieving by inviting people experiencing grief to share their stories, listening to their experiences, and learning from them what is helpful or not helpful.
- You can have a social media campaign targeting key stakeholders to push the agenda for increased support to the bereaved forward. Mobilise your members to share the social media messages in the Campaign Toolkit: Healing Hearts and Communities and feel free to draft more social media messages. You can tag policymakers who can influence the proposed changes.
- Engage the media in your event to reach the masses with your message.
Events ideas are numerous. Feel free to come up with more ideas and let’s make our voices heard and advocate for favourable conditions and policies for the families and caregivers in times of grief.
Please add your events here https://www.thewhpca.org/world-hospice-and-palliative-care-day/events-2022. WHPCA needs you to register your events, otherwise we have no way of knowing the impact of World Day.
We also encourage you to share your stories, images (from those giving informed consent), and videos. The Good Grief campaign 2022 also gives you the chance to share your community’s best practices. WHPCA World Day includes Good Grief stories and profiles from around the world showcasing successful grief support programs and memorialisation initiatives. To participate, simply email info@thewhpca.org and copy the WHPCA Communications Manager at hkinyua@thewhpca.org We will share these best practices on the WHPCA digital platforms. The deadline for submission is 10 September 2022, but the sooner you share the better for ease of planning. This year WHPCA is working with WHO to help promote World Day so let’s make this year’s event the biggest ever!
We look forward to receiving your submissions and seeing your events on the WHPCA global events map. #WHPCDay22.
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