New Vatican-based white paper describes expert-led effort to improve global palliative care

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Sep 28 2018

A new white paper, developed by the Vatican-based Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), describes the broad-based, expert-led effort to develop recommendations for improving global palliative care. Advances in palliative care are needed to aid the more than 25 million people who die each year with serious health-related suffering, as the current supply of palliative care cannot meet the growing demand, according to the white paper published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website in English and in Spanish.

The article entitled "White Paper for Global Palliative Care Advocacy: Recommendations from a PAL-LIFE Expert Advisory Group of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Vatican City" is a product of the work by a group of experts in palliative care advocacy who represent different faiths and were invited by the PAV to develop strategic recommendations to advance global palliative care. The expert group identified 43 recommendations and 13 stakeholder groups, targeting the most important recommendations for each stakeholder group.

"This is of historic importance. The moral authority for much of the world is advocating palliative care for the first time," says Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine and Vice President, Medical Affairs, Hospice and Palliative Medicine for the OhioHealth system.