Image: Walking the talk: Regina Okhuysen-Cawley, Megan Doherty, and Sherin Paul.
Source: IAHPC Photo used with permission.
Authors: IAHPC, Dr. Megan Doherty and Fr. Richard Bauer
WHA Statements Have a demonstrable Impact
By Megan Doherty, MD
Paediatric Palliative Director – South Asia, Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration; Associate Professor, University of Ottawa
As a first-time delegate for the IAHPC, I learned that good preparation is key to making an advocacy impact. Meetings with Katherine Pettus and the five other IAHPC delegates prior to the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) were held over six weeks to prepare both advocacy and interventions (statements).
The day before the assembly, I joined IAHPC delegates Drs. Regina Okhuysen-Cawley (United States) and Sherin Paul (India) at the World Health Organization’s “Walk the Talk” event: 8,000 participants walked a 3 km course through Geneva. The three of us carried placards calling for “A World Free from Serious Health-Related Suffering,” the IAHPC vision of universal access to essential palliative care. On the first day of the WHA, all IAHPC delegates met in person for the first time, including Fr. Rick Bauer (USA), Dr. Natalie Greaves (Barbados), and Eduardo Garralda (Spain).
The first statements
After the opening plenary, where Dr. Tedros spoke about the importance of increasing access to universal health coverage and the importance of primary health care, the assembly began working in two committees. In one committee, we presented most of the statements prepared in the weeks before. Katherine guided us through the process of identifying areas where palliative care was absent from the WHA agenda, helping us to develop short oral and written statements to highlight these gaps.
Constituency statements pack all our recommendations into three minutes, whereas individual statements are restricted to one minute.
All member states listened to us
As Fr. Bauer presented our team’s first constituency statement on the need for explicit reference to internationally controlled essential medicines in the 14th WHO General Program of Work, I began to see how we, as palliative care practitioners and advocates, actually had a voice at the table. All member states were listening as we raised the issue of palliative care and access to controlled medicines, including medical opioids. On another day, we delivered a constituency statement on the need to include palliative care as part of maternal child health, emphasizing the needs of children with cancer, neonatal conditions, HIV and other serious illnesses.
I was impressed to see the impact, as right after I finished speaking, a member state delegate approached me sharing his realization that there are children who need palliative care. Our delegation shared more about the importance of palliative care for children, raising his awareness, and hopefully leading to further advocacy and engagement.
The impact of our statements may affect my own practice
My daily work as a palliative care pediatrician involves supporting children and their families. While working in both Canada and Bangladesh, I have experienced firsthand the inequalities in palliative care access: 97% of children who need palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries, where few have access. Access to essential pain medicines, such as morphine, is often not possible, leaving children and their caregivers suffering.
Being at the WHA, I could see how the advocacy work of the IAHPC at these meetings can make a tangible difference. By raising statements on palliative care, the IAHPC is able to highlight important gaps, making countries aware of people’s needs and encouraging them to take action.
The WHO is supporting this as they work to develop more tools and guidelines and training which help support health care providers to implement palliative care.
Our advocacy matters
During the WHA, I met health care providers, advocates, administrators, and government officials, all focused on ensuring improved health for the world. The WHA slogan “All for Health, Health for All” emphasized this. Through its events of strategic round tables, committee discussions, and side events, I learned more about primary health care, universal health coverage, and WHO efforts to expand health system funding. All these topics are so important for ensuring that palliative care is available for all those who need it.
As I move into a new position as a palliative care consultant with the World Health Organization on June 17, my experience at the WHA has allowed me to experience directly how IAHPC and other advocacy organizations—such as IPA, SIOP, UICC, and WHPCA, which joined the IAHPC in the constituency statement that I presented—can be important advocates supporting and engaging member states on issues related to palliative care.
A Discovery of Similar Goals
By Father Richard Bauer
Chaplain, Palliative Care and Spiritual Care, George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health, Washington, DC, United States
I am so very grateful to the IAHPC for the privilege to attend and provide interventions at WHA77. Although I have spoken numerous times at the United Nations, the WHA is a unique event. I am also grateful for the incredible mentoring that we all received from Katherine Pettus on the development of our individual and constituency statements.
I attended three side events: by PallCHASE, the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), and the Handicap International Federation. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk about palliative care with the federation staff and side event participants. I learned that many of the staff had never considered the benefits of palliative care, and yet many of our goals—and struggles—are similar.
Throughout my five days in Geneva, there were numerous opportunities to advocate for palliative care and acknowledge the importance of the IAHPC in global palliative care advocacy.
During the WHPCA side event, I was able to spend an extended amount of time with Ambassador Ghislain D’Hoop (Belgium/EU) and his lovely wife. As many are aware, he is one of the principal advocates for the availability of medicines for palliative care. During much of the WHA, I sat with the outgoing and incoming presidents of the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists. I believe this opportunity to network was of great benefit for both of us.
Finally, I was able to have an extended conversation with the delegation from the Holy See. They were very, very interested in all of our interventions, put particularly the ones focusing on children. “I never knew palliative care was also for children” was one comment that led to an extensive conversation with them on that topic, as well as our mutually shared goals for increased availability of palliative care, especially in the southern hemisphere.
Originally published in the article “IAHPC Statements at the World Health Assembly” from the website Hospicecare.com and can be found here.
