“For policymakers, major issues to consider are availability of care, human resources and training, affordability of care, quality of care and community engagement through public awareness campaigns and support volunteers”. The demand analysis, based on countries’ demographic profiles and the burden of diseases for which palliative care is necessary, shows China to be among the most vulnerable from population ageing and the rising incidence of conditions such as cardiovascular disease, which accounted for one-third of all deaths in the country in 2012.
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An emphasis on spiritual care as opposed to symptom management is one of the reasons for Taiwan’s top ranking in the latest EIU Death of Quality Index. In the Human Development Index of 2014, Uganda ranks much below even India, at 164th place.
Panama ranks 31st, largely due to the establishment of a national palliative care system in 2010.
Palliative care advocates not only in developing countries but also across the world are studying Kerala’s potent combination of government support and civic involvement in end-of-life care, the report said.
Summary: Sneha Sandhya Age Care Foundation plans various events tomorrow on World Hospice and Palliative Care Day “Out of 10 1akh deaths, six lakh need palliative care and only 3 per cent have access to the facility”.
The upper rungs of the index are dominated by wealthy European, Asia-Pacific and North American countries.
Unsurprisingly, spots on the “Top Ten Places To Die” list are mostly filled by high-income nations, including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Belgium, Taiwan, Germany, Netherlands, the USA, and France. The USA is ninth in the index.
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As for the United States, the report notes that the system for delivering palliative care is “open and transparent, but not universally affordable”, adding that “the number of specialists falls short of patient needs”. The other super strong marker is the way that the countries do have a plan for palliative care. The EIU, though, said that scores are being measured differently now.
