St Christopher’s has a long history of supporting other organisations to deliver high quality education and training in palliative care and end of life.
A prime example is the QELCA programme (Quality End of Life for All), created to support hospitals, community teams and healthcare providers. Starting life in the UK, QELCA developed learning programmes delivered by trainers in countries such as China, Brazil, Korea, Australia and Canada. Through conversations with trainers from QELCA the idea of Beacons of CARE (The Centre for Awareness and Response to End of Life) was conceived.
Beacons of CARE, similar to QELCA are organisations around the world that place high value on education and training as a means of increasing access to high quality palliative care.
They are committed to expending resource and effort on building knowledge, skills and confidence in health professionals, volunteers and others who are committed to improving how people die and grieve.
Through their partnership with St Christopher’s they have access to a variety of learning tools and products – including curricula, presentations, animations and more, which they are free to contextualise, translate and develop to meet their target learners.
2024 saw Beacons of CARE start work in Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, France, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. Their focus and priorities are unique and different, but the opportunities to learn and support each other become increasingly apparent.
Some early ideas to jointly develop programmes of learning beyond that available at St Christopher’s for community health workers, building on established work in Bangladesh is one such example.
Representatives of the new beacons came together in London in October 2024, working together for a week to create delivery plans and engage with the opportunities afforded through this new network.
We are already seeing the fruit of that effort on the part of some beacons. In Mexico, the Beacon known locally as “Seeds of Care” brings together the efforts of two associations: Fundación COI and CEPAMEX. Both organizations share a common goal but offer different areas of expertise. Together, they are working to develop and implement training plans for oncologists and nurses, with the aim of reaching well beyond Mexico City.
Beatriz Dorsey Rivera MD, Msc, the leader of this initiative, explains:
In January, more than 650 Spanish-speaking healthcare professionals involved in oncology had the opportunity to enhance their palliative care skills through a comprehensive free training program led by Beatriz and a team of national and international speakers. The 16-hour course focused on pain and symptom management, communication skills, and the importance of understanding palliative care philosophy and early referrals.
Drawing on resources from St. Christopher’s Hospice, which focuses on rehabilitative palliative care, the team in Mexico was able to create an exciting and innovative program that was well-received and highly evaluated.
One of the primary objectives of “Seeds of Care,” alongside “Beacons of Care,” is to reduce the palliative care access gap in countries like Mexico. This is achieved through education. In this instance, the program provided education to healthcare professionals from across Latin America, Europe, and Africa, marking a significant step toward improving global palliative care practices.
And this is just one example. The team in Bangladesh is creating a virtual platform providing a broad introduction to palliative care for professionals. It builds on work initiated by a community led organisation, the local university and the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance. The team in Brazil has plans for a new management and leadership programme available to middle managers, co-designed with CARE in London.
In its relationship with the different Beacons, St Christopher’s hopes to extend the reach of its resources that have been generated over the years.
Its ambition is to be generous and supportive beyond its relatively small scope of influence.
In return, it wants to learn from other organisations about how to best utilise education and training opportunities to improve people’s experience of end of life.
In addition, it recognises new value in some of its products as they are contextualised and translated by other experts in the field. At a time when provider organisations struggle more and more to meet the growing and increasingly complex needs of people dying and grieving, building capacity, capability and confidence in increased numbers of professionals across the Globe can only be helpful.
To find out more about being a Beacon of CARE during 2025 contact education@stchristophers.org.uk or click here
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https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/beacons-of-care-shine-bright/
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