World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is a new unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world.

The first World Hospice and Palliative Care Day takes place on October 8th 2005

The day is for anyone and everyone who cares about or is involved in hospice and palliative care anywhere in the world, whether a person living with a terminal illness, a health worker, a volunteer or supporter. The idea has been developed in partnership with Voices for Hospices – the world’s largest simultaneous singing event in aid of hospice care, which in 2003 involved over 500 performances world-wide taking place over 24 hours. Voices for Hospices is a charity which has enabled more than $8 million (£4.5m) to be raised for hospice and palliative care since it started in 1991, www.voicesforhospices.org.

Voices for Hospices is just part of the more than 500 events happening across 62 countries. These include a global online petition, which can be signed at www.worldday.org/petition.asp, art exhibitions in Hong Kong, Austrian and Australia, a youth drama competition in South Africa and a cycle rally in Nepal.

Around the world, over one million people die every day and 100 million people worldwide need access to hospice and palliative care at the current time, but almost half the countries in the world have no provision at all, experiencing unnecessary pain and distress, either unaware of or unable to access the care they need.

High quality hospice and palliative care which aims to meet the needs of the whole person can and does, provide an answer. This is an issue that affects literally everybody on the planet – we would all like our lives – and the lives of those we love – to end peacefully and comfortably.

The day has three key aims:

• To share our vision to increase the availability of hospice and palliative care throughout the world. To create opportunities to speak out about the issues which affect provision of hospice and palliative care around the world, to influence opinion formers including health care funders and policy makers
• To raise awareness and understanding of the needs – medical, social, practical, spiritual - of people living with a terminal diagnosis and their families. To explain how hospice and palliative care can transform people’s lives and to show how it can help to meet those needs
• To raise funds to support and develop hospice and palliative care services around the world – particularly through Voices for Hospices events

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day will help to increase understanding of hospice and palliative care and how it supports those facing the end of life. Hospice and palliative care is not about ‘helping someone die’ but instead about helping someone to live as comfortably as possible with their illness. It’s a holistic approach that respects the individual’s wishes and helps them in ways appropriate to them, both individually and culturally. As such, it is flexible and adaptable but need not be expensive. There are low cost drugs, treatments and ways of giving support which can make all the difference to the quality of people’s lives. But this knowledge needs to be shared – and the work involved in setting up and running such programmes funded.

World Report Presented to HRH Princess Anne

Suffering at the End of Life – The State of the World is a report on the current situation of hospice and palliative care globally that was launched to mark World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. Produced by Help the Hospices, this important report describes the principles of hospice and palliative care and highlight the current issues facing its delivery through facts and figures, case studies and photographs. The report gives recommendations on what needs to be done to further develop and improve hospice and palliative care service delivery throughout the world. The report was launched in the presence of Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal at an event at the British Academy in London on 5th October. A copy of the report can be downloaded here. To purchase a hard copy for £10, contact Hospice Information on 020 7520 8232.

For more information on how to support World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, please visit www.worldday.org.uk, where you can sign the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Petition and play the World Day Game. Organisations and individuals may also email with enquiries or suggestions to worldday@helpthehospices.org.uk or call Help the Hospices on (44) 207 520 8250.