As part of our series to look at the stigma of palliative care in Africa, we interviewed Dr. Zipporah Ali, a palliative care physician and Executive Director of Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Assoication (KEHPCA). Dr. Ali is a medical doctor with a masters degrees in palliative care. She has been working in palliative care since 1993, initially as a volunteer at the Nairobi Hospice, and later on as the Senior Medical Officer. She worked with Nairobi Hospice for 16...
As part of our series to look at the stigma of palliative care in Africa, we interviewed Rachel J Freeman, a social worker lecturer at the University of Namibia.
GIPPEC: What inspired you to work in palliative care?
Freeman: My interest in palliative care social work was inspired by a personal experience with death and dying seven years before the conceptualization of my current PhD thesis. This was when my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer...
-500x300.jpg)
GIPPEC is delighted to announce the successful delivery of six CALM workshops in Chile, Italy, China, New Zealand, and Canada in 2017! The CALM workshops bring together a diverse group of oncology professionals in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, social work, nursing, palliative and spiritual care, and more, to gain training and skill development in CALM therapy. Participants are introduced to the rationale, theoretical foundations, content, and processes of CALM therapy. Learning is facilitated through the presentation and discussion of videotaped psychotherapeutic...
-500x300.jpg)
“All great literature deals with the highs and lows of human experience. If you have some resources and perspective yourself on life experience - which literature can offer- it is helpful when dealing with loss and death. Literature also provides the message of choice, human agency and overcoming difficult and grand emotion. These are the things that don’t come easy in a clinical setting but are very important.” ~ Dr. Anne Lanceley in Personal Communication.
Dr. Anne Lanceley, a nurse...
-500x300.jpg)
GIPPEC Symposium Report on the access to pallliative and end-of-life CARE among First Nations, Inuit and Métis has been released. The report highlights the challenges faced by the communities, the existing strengths and resilience of the community in tackling the challenges, and recommendations on research, education and policy.
The full report can be downloaded here.
CALM or Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully, is a brief, semi-structured, evidence-based, psychotherapeutic intervention designed to help people with metastatic cancer and their caregivers manage the practical and profound problems associated with advanced disease. The primary goals of CALM are reducing and preventing psychological distress.
The CALM Therapy Training Program is designed to teach and supervise healthcare professionals in the delivery of CALM therapy. The program has two levels. In the introductory level, learners will develop clinical skills to help patients...
Dr. David Christiansen is awarded the 2016 GIPPEC Research Collaborative Grant to further his innovative research in palliative care for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This research will be the first investigation of morphine for use in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Dr. Christiansen is a fifth-year resident in the Adult Respirology training program at the University of Toronto. His clinical interest lies in the area of pulmonary hypertension. He originally hails from Winnipeg and is a graduate of the University of...
In the words of Frederick Douglass, the nineteenth century African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
It’s a saying that accurately captures the study team’s experiences of implementing the GIPPEC-MWAPO Health Development Group’s collaborative Quality of Death and Dying study. Starting in October 2016, data collection has been ongoing at Nairobi Hospice, the first of the three palliative care sites involved in the...
Reflecting on challenges to data collection by Nancy Gikaara
It has been both exciting, and a little challenging, working on this unique study in Nairobi Hospice, producing a number of learnt lessons that will serve as a launching pad as the study team moves to the subsequent sites.
To begin with, according to a number of those participants, the invitation to attend the hospice for an interview has helped them speak to the hospice staff about how they are faring since...