The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Community Participation in Long Term and Palliative Care, Kerala, India, has released a workbook to support training of carers in palliative care.
The workbook is drawn from the more than two decades of experience by the Institute of Palliative Medicine in the field of community based palliative care. It was released on World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on 14 October.
Dr Suresh Kumar, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Community Participation in Palliative Care and Long Term Care and Technical Advisor at the Institute of Palliative Medicine, Calicut, said: “The workbook aims to be the supporting manual for the 16 hour middle level training program suggested by WHO for palliative care volunteers.
“The recent Guide for Program Mangers by WHO suggests 16 hours as the middle level training for community volunteers involved in home care, but until now there was no manual available for this.
“The approach is different from the conventional Western approach based on what professionals can do to help them – signposting, respite, counselling etc.
“This is about what carers can do themselves – and hence is a different model.”
This book generated through a series of workshops on the Sanjeevan Palliative Care Project platform, is meant to support interactive learning in groups, and is designed to encourage modification by the user. The blank slots will be filled up with information generated during the training sessions. The trainee then keeps his customized copy as a manual for future reference.
Palliative care – a Workbook for Carers is available free to download from the Institute of Palliative Medicine website.
Read more about the release of Palliative Care – A Handbook for Carers in an EAPC blog post by Dr Libby Sallnow.
