Around 35 palliative care centres across Tamil Nadu have come together and formed Tamil Nadu Palliative Care Group. The objectives of the two-week-old forum: developing a uniform and standardised protocol in the area of palliative care and making such care accessible and affordable for people from all sections of society.
As part of this objective, Tamil Nadu Palliative Care Group will be offering training programmes in two different categories — clinical palliative care and non-clinical palliative care.
Only those who have completed MBBS and para-medical courses will be allowed to undergo training in the clinical aspects of the care. The non-clinical training programme is meant for laymen, including the family members of a patient and volunteers working in the area of community healthcare.
The training will be offered by the member organisations of Tamil Nadu Palliative Care Group. Organisations from Chennai that are part of the group include Adyar Cancer Institute (Adyar); RMD Pain and Palliative Care Trust (T. Nagar); Lakshmi Pain and Palliative Care Trust (Egmore); DEAN Foundation (Kilpauk); and Jeevodaya Hospice (Manali).
No fee will be charged for tailor-made training programmes; some of them may however require sponsorships. “There is clearly a need to have people specially trained in palliative care. In India, palliative medicine is still an emerging discipline. Only last year, the Medical Council of India recognised palliative medicine as a specialisation,” says Republica Sridhar, a palliative-care physician.
Another objective of the group is to create better understanding about palliative care.
“Care givers in the family and the patient often have the misconception that palliative care is required at the terminal stage. Therapeutic physicians and palliative care physicians have to work hand-in-hand from the diagnosis of the disease. Through the course of the treatment, therapeutic options will become lesser and lesser and a lot of palliative intervention will be called for,” says Kalpana Balakrishnan, palliative-care physician at Adyar Cancer Institute.
The forum was founded on October 15, which is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. Those keen on volunteering in the field of palliative care may call any of the following physicians: Mallika Tiruvadanan at 98410 22828 / Kalpana Balakrishnan at 98401 58777 / Ellango at 87545 88885 / Republica Sridhar at 93810 16588.