Congress feedback Palermo 2001

This page contains reports and comments received from the 7th EAPC congress.

During the Opening Ceremony, we had the pleasure of watching a theatrical performance entitled 'The Lady Draped in Nothing', produced by Gerardo Placido and inspired by the book, Intimate Death by Marie de Hennezel. The performance provided all of us with moments of great emotion and compassion. The audience was touched both by the subject of the performance and the skill of the actors.
Nevertheless, as the author of the book was present at the performance, she did not appreciated the 'free interpretation' that the actors have given to her book. She found, in fact, that the performance did not portray the true meaning of her words.
Therefore, the author would like to make clear a few points and we are very happy to give her this opportunity.
Giorgio Trizzino and Sebastiano Mercadante

Official letter from Marie de Hennezel

I have received numerous comments from the French participants about the theatrical performance put on during the opening ceremony of the 7^th European Congress of Palliative Care at Palermo, and I wish to make the following points perfectly clear.

1. I can in no way endorse the performance, which I had not seen before and about which I had not been consulted. In the show, which was entirely his responsibility, Mr Placido represented his own very personal interpretation of my book.
2. The montage of sentences from my book, Intimate Death, taken out of context, in no way represents what I wanted to say, and merely serves to nurture Mr Placido's fantasies.
3. I find particularly unbearable the parody of my relationship with François Mitterand, which belongs to my private life and about which I was extremely discreet in my book.
4. Finally, apart from my own case, the very principles of the palliative care movement and the work of so many are seriously misunderstood and distorded in the numerous confusions of ideas in the show. I therefore totally disapprove of the use of religious and republican symbols, which have no place in palliative care.

Marie de Hennezel

Of the gathering of social workers in Palermo

What do you call a meeting of social workers from across Europe and beyond? Those who could get to Palermo a day before the Congress, met to exchange their experiences and some of the particular challenges they face in palliative care in their home settings.

Switzerland, England, Iceland, Scotland and the USA were represented and through this initial meeting, further contacts were made with colleagues in Israel, France, Italy, Norway, Belgium amongst others during the Congress. We heard about specialist work that was being developed with projects to extend palliative care to people with learning disabilities; educational initiatives in teaching psychosocial aspects of care; and social workers and chaplains working together to provide staff support groups.We wrestled with further defining the role of the social worker in palliative care.

This sort of agenda is not unusual, nor the warmth of greeting between colleagues in identifying the commonality and difference in their roles across countries. Yet this always comes as a surprise as one strikes up new contacts. The EAPC provides a great opportunity for this networking, one of the main benefits of such a gathering.

Thanks to Pam Firth and Gill Luff for chairing the meeting. They are writing a report and producing a list of social workers. If you would like to be circulated, please let me know.

See you in Holland.

David Oliviere
Macmillan Principal Lecturer

Lettre du Président de la Federation Wallone de Soins Palliatifs (telecharger jpg)

Letter from the president of the Federation Wallone de Soins Palliatifs

download translation

Thank you for a most successful Congress. I was delighted to be a participant. I hope that you are very proud of your accomplishments through this Congress. I know that everyone I met really enjoyed the meeting, the environment you created and the social events.
Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to meet you during the Congress. I guess I was just spent too much time at the EPEC Project booth.
I look forward to another opportunity to meet you, and again, thanks so much.

Frank D. Ferris
Medical Director, Palliative Care Standards / Outcome Measures
SAN DIEGO HOSPICE, 4311 Third Avenue
San Diego, CA, USA 92103-1407
Office: (619) 688-1500 x225
Fax: (619) 298-7027

Dear Sebastiano,

I am writing this letter to thank you for a good and balanced Congress in Palermo last week. I must say that you succeeded in making something very interesting and of the better quality than some previous Congresses. I enjoyed it very much. Also I was impressed by the beauty of Sicily and I am sure I shall return there one time.

Sincerely yours,

Ben Zylicz

Oggetto: 7th Congress of EAPC
Data: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 08:52:07 +0200
Da: "Schaerer, Rene" <RSchaerer@chu-grenoble.fr>
A: "'congrpal@tin.it'" <congrpal@tin.it>

Dear Friends and colleagues,

You have been the best ! This Congress was excellent, due to your own involvement in its preparation. I must add that you live in a wonderful country that we have had the opportunity to visit during three post-congress days ; the landscape was at its best and people, in every place we went in, were very welcoming.

Now, take a necessary (and deserved) rest time for yourselves : this is also a message from the Palliative Care experience!!!

Thank you again.

René SCHAERER

Oggetto: 7th Congress
Data: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 16:08:59 +0200
Da: "Claude Fusco Karmann" <c.fusco@legatumori.mi.it>
Società: Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori
A: "Sebastiano Mercadante" <congrpal@tin.it>, "Giorgio Trizzino" <gtrizzi@tin.it>

Carissimi, in questi giorni del dopo Congresso che ci ha visti impegnati, voi moltissimo, moltissimo, io molto molto meno ma con altrettanto entusiasmo, ho voglia di congratularmi con voi per il grandissimo successo, per la gentilissima come sempre ospitalità, per tutto insomma. Siete stati bravissimi e ora vi meritate un buon riposo. Complimenti ancora alla vostra insostituibile Antonella. A presto. Con affetto.

Claude Fusco
Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori
Via Venezian 1
20133 Milano
Sito Web : http://www.legatumori.mi.it
Sede : Telefono +39-02-2663481 Fax +39-02-2663484

From: "Matthias Brian" <matthias.brian@telia.com>
To: "Heidi Blumhuber EAPC" <heidi.blumhuber@istitutotumori.mi.it>
Cc: "Carl-Magnus Edenbrandt" <cm.edenbrandt@hem.utfors.se>
Subject: SV: New web-site of the Swedish Association
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 22:00:53 +0200

Dear Heidi!

Thank you very much and also for your work together with Carlo on the web-site. We will try to write a summary about our national organisation in English on our web-site, as soon as we have the time to do it. Thank you and all the EAPC-satff for a great congress in Palermo!

Matthias Brian

Board member of the Swedish Association for Palliative Medicine
matthias.brian@sfpm.org

Oggetto: Re: Our very best wishes
Data: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 17:14:58 +0100
Da: "F M SHELDON" <fms@socsci.soton.ac.uk>
Società: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southampton
A: Palermo EAPC 2001 <congrpal@tin.it>

Dear Colleagues

Thank you for your warm welcome and support which helped to make the Congress a very enjoyable experience. I hope you are now rested after all the hard work.

Best wishes

Frances Sheldon
Macmillan Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Palliative Care
Head of Department ofSocial Work Studies
University of Southampton

Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 15:12:45 +0100
From: "Carol Davis" <Carol.Davis@suht.swest.nhs.uk>
To: <eapchoh@anprisc.anapat.istitutotumori.mi.it>
Subject: Palermo Conference

Dear Heidi,

I am writing to congratulate you, the rest of the EAPC secretariat committee, the organising committee, the scientific committee and the staff of Kenes. I thought that the Palermo conference was very well organised and that some aspects were extremely good. In particular, the audio visual technicians were extremely helpful and very flexible.

I was on the scientific committee for the Barbican congress and chairman of the organising committee of the Palliative Care congress in the UK. I am very aware, therefore, of all the hard work that goes in at all sorts of different levels to make a successful congress. I am also aware that after a congress, the most vociferous people are usually those who have a criticism rather than those who thought it was very good.

Please pass on my congratulations to all concerned.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Carol Davis

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