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TASK FORCE UPDATE REPORT
December 2007
Taskforces are generally designed to be of limited duration, but some turn out to continue to function as small expert groups or networks in a special field and act as advising body to the EAPC Board of Directors.
The EAPC Ethics Task Force on Palliative Care and Euthanasia
Chair - Lars Johan Materstvedt, Norway (www.materstvedt.net)
The paper produced by this group of experts, “Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: a view from an EAPC Ethics Task Force”, represents since June 2003 the official position of the EAPC on this issue. It was published originally in English and French and has, this far, been translated into Italian, Hungarian, German, Greek and Finnish. Subsequent to its publication, three additional papers were written by the Chair; the first is a "Reply to Critics", the second describes the history of the taskforce and how its work was performed, and the third deals with challenges associated with translation of the position paper. These, the translations, as well as the original paper with all commentaries from across the world, may be downloaded for free from the ethics website.
Nursing Education Taskforce
Chair – Phil Larkin, Ireland
The taskforce produced “A Guide for the Development of Palliative Nurse Education in Europe” available as downloadable pdf file in English, French, Dutch and Italian. As the fruition of a consensus process by 120 European nurses from 13 different countries, this document represents a solid and workable foundation for the development of education and training in palliative care. The authors encourage those responsible for education and training, particularly within each national association, to take and/or adapt this document locally, in their respective countries. Luxembourg has taken on the recommendations in terms of their education programme for nurses.
Taskforce on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe
Chair - Carlos Centeno, Spain
This Task Force aims to explore, assess and comprehensively summarize the current state of the development of palliative care in the European region and
1. To provide reliable information on the delivery of hospice and palliative care in Europe in a manner relevant to the EAPC; to intergovernmental organisations and to national and regional governments
2. To explore the current organisation of hospice and palliative care in Europe considering political and social issues; healthcare policies, and the availability of palliative care resources countrywide
3. To facilitate access to information and communication between hospice and palliative care associations and societies that operate across Europe
4. To aid the identification of key persons who have studied the development of hospice and palliative care in their own settings and who may provide country specific data to assist policy makers, planners and professional associations .
The publication of a printed and electronic Atlas in 2007, is the result of the work of this taskforce. The study has succeeded in compiling country reports for 42/52 participating countries (eapcnet.org/Policy/CountriesReport.htm) which results are presented in The Atlas in a very attractive way with tables and maps. The EAPC Task Force has worked in the last four years on the project and its main results, the Atlas, is representing the largest palliative care research collaboration of its kind, carried out an assessment of palliative care development taking into account political, social and health care policy. To access the details and the report, read more at eapcnet.org/Policy/EAPC.Atlas.htm
A second taskforce building on and updating the results of this survey. Will start its work in 2007.
Task Force CEE & FSU Newsletter
Chair - Katalin Hegedus, Hungary
The main goal is to further develop the monthly online CEE & FSU (Central and Eastern European and Former Soviet Union) Palliative Care Newsletter in English and Russian languages in order to cover palliative care activities in the countries of the region. A further aim is to increase the participation of these countries in international associations, movements and actions. One of the results in 2007 is that there were 329 registered participants from the CEE&FSU countries at the 10th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in Budapest. Another result is that after the congress 3 new national associations became EAPC collective members from the region. The issues of the Newsletter are distributed to almost 1200 e-mail addresses. The English version of the Newsletter has an average 600-1200 readers per month, and the Russian version about 60-120 readers.
Dowload report here
Physician Education Taskforce
Chair – Frank Elsner, Germany
The European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) has always regarded the education of health care professionals in Palliative Care as one of the most important objectives to promote of Palliative Care in Europe. A taskforce was established to work on recommendations for curricula on under- and postgraduate medical education in Palliative Care. The taskforce has finished a paper called “Curriculum in Palliative Care for Undergraduate Medical Education - Recommendations of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC)” which has already been published on the EAPC-website at:
eapcnet.org/download/forTaskforces/PhysiciansTF/PC-Curr-UndergraduateMedEdu.pdf
A corresponding curriculum for postgraduate education is on the verge to be finished.
In the future the task force will have to work on the promotion and dissemination of these curricula and also on how to adopt them in the individual and different national settings. Furthermore regular updates of the curricula will be necessary to guarantee an ongoing high level of quality of education in the field.
Taskforce on National Association Organizations Developments
Chair – David Praill
This task force was established in collaboration with Help the Hospices, in Spring 2006. Its aim is to survey national association organizational development and support their needs according to their level of development. The survey was conducted and data presented at the EAPC conference Budapest in 2007. It provided an insight into the issues, problems and solutions associated with the work of national associations, their relationships to local health systems and their impact on the provision and motivation for palliative care service delivery.
The survey highlighted the lack of development of national associations and need for a training programme to be developed in key areas such as fundraising and advocacy. As a result, fundraising training occurred at the EAPC conference in Budapest in 2007. In October 2007, a high level advocacy meeting occurred at the European Union to present results of the survey and palliative care development in Europe. This led a letter from EAPC to EAPC members to write to MEPs about the issue and a presentation in February 2008 on key issues for palliative care as part of the Slovenian EU presidency for 2008. Planning is now occurring to provide further support to national associations in Europe, including a review of what national associations are doing to scale up palliative care and development under the auspices of the “Budapest Commitments”. This will be presented at the EAPC conference in Vienna 2009.
Taskforce on European Palliative Stage Opportunity (EPSO)
Chair – Tine de Vlieger
This taskforce has arisen out of initial work undertaken by the NTN Dutch palliative care network and the Nursing education group. Its aim is to prepare a web-based catalogue for people wishing to undertake clinical experience in another country. Guidelines and evaluation materials for both applicant and host centre are currently being prepared and published on the EAPC website. Host centres will initially be identified by the National Association members and then approached to participate in the project. The outcome of the project will be a sustainable
We are pleased to announce that you can now view the Host Centre Application pages on the EAPC website. You can download the application form from it. We invite you to complete it and then send it by e-mail directly to Amelia Giordano at the EAPC Head Office ()
However, please note that this is the preliminary document and should only be completed by Host Centre applicants from the 5 countries who are involved in the Taskforce Pilot project; Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Ireland, Switzerland and the U.K.
The full on-line application will be available later in 2010. This is because we are currently upgrading the website and its technical support and we expect it to be ready by this date. This application is a trial to see how it may work in practice.
Solid facts in Paediatric Palliative Care – EAPC Taskforce
Chair - Franca Benini
In the last decade palliative care has witnessed an expansion in knowledge and provision of services in many countries worldwide, while palliative care for children has not had the same attention and growth. Globally, very few children actually have access to palliative care and as a consequence, they face disease and death without dignity, in adult facilities not suitable to their age, without appropriate management of symptoms or clinical, psychological, religious, social and organizational support and assistance. The purpose of the EAPC Taskforce: “Solid facts in Paediatric Palliative Care” is to examine and describe the state of the art and need for palliative care in children through a systematic and comprehensive analysis of scientific evidence, anecdotal experience, suggestions and contributions from leading international experts in different fields of paediatric palliative care in order to formulate recommendations for health care policy makers. In particular, this Taskforce will be effective where there is an absence of adequate national health care strategy devised to establish costs and to determine problems and needs necessary for the development of appropriate and effective care services.
A new Taskforce on: Palliative Care for older People: Better Practice
Chair Irene Higginson
A new EAPC task force was established in September 2007 aiming to improve palliative and end of life care for older people by publishing a high profile guide of examples of good and promising practice around Europe. This project seeks to build on two previous guides: Palliative Care: The Solid Facts (Davies & Higginson, 2004) and Better Palliative Care for Older People (Davies & Higginson, 2004)) to provide examples of better palliative care practice, to aid those involved in planning and supporting care-orientated services in the most appropriate and effective way. A group of international contributors are participating in planning and developing the guide.
Examples of better practice have been so far obtained using two methods: literature reviews and a call for examples. Thirteen international and national organisations participated in the call for examples. A preliminary literature review of palliative care interventions in care homes has produced 16 potential examples of better practice. In addition, we found examples of better palliative care practice for older people in other settings. A wide range of diverse examples of better practice in palliative care for older people have been identified, such as educational and training programs, care pathways, quality improvement interventions, multidisciplinary palliative care teams, support for friends and carers and regional initiatives, and the results of our current review have informed the development of other systematic reviews. Cross-European data have also been collected on a number of parameters, such as place of death, palliative care workforce and aging populations, which will be included in the guide. A draft of the introduction to the guide is underway and a poster describing the development of the guide has been presented in May 2008 at the EAPC conference in Trondheim.
A group meeting is scheduled soon in Rome where we will be finalising our selection criteria based on
(i) quality of evaluation;
(ii) relevance to older people and
(iii) relevance to Europe. We will also begin to choose examples for the guide and develop our dissemination strategy.
October 2006
Taskforce initiatives are designed to be of limited duration and therefore this report focuses predominantly on those taskforces which are currently active, or where additional information has been obtained from chairpersons. It has been suggested (and agreed) that some space should be given to updating on taskforce developments during the Budapest congress and Phil Larkin will chair the session and take the lead in organizing same.
Ethics Taskforce
Chair - Lars Johan Matersved
Further translations of the work have been undertaken in Hungarian, Greek and Finnish (recorded on the EAPC website). A paper on the complications of translation has been written by Lars Johan Matersvedt and published in European Journal of Palliative Care September/October 2006.
Nursing Education Taskforce
Chair – Phil Larkin
Although the work is completed, a development of this work has been a new taskforce on European clinical placements ( see below).
Taskforce on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe
Chair - Carlos Centeno
A comprehensive report of this work has been published in European Journal of Palliative Care July/August 2006.
Taskforce on National Association Organizations Developments
Chair – David Praill
This taskforce has had one formal meeting ( during the Venezia congress) and a teleconference held earlier in the year. Directed from Help the Hospices offices, a questionnaire survey has been sent out, translated into a number of European languages and was due to be returned by end September. The data will give an insight into the issues problems and solutions associated with the work of national associations, their relationships to local health systems and their impact on the provision and motivation for palliative care service delivery.
Taskforce on European Palliative Stage Opportunity ( EPSO)
Chair – Tine deVlieger
This taskforce has arisen out of initial work undertaken by the NTN Dutch palliative care network and the Nursing education group. The group has met on two occasions (Venezia and latterly in Brussels). The aim of the taskforce is to prepare a web-based catalogue for people wishing to undertake clinical experience in another country. Guidelines and evaluation materials for both applicant and host centre are currently being prepared and will be finalized at a meeting in November 2006, it is hoped to utilize the EAPC website as a host for the materials under the direction of the group. Host centres will initially be identified by the National Association members and then approached to participate in the project. The outcome of the project will be a sustainable information base for potential clinical experiences to improve the sharing of best practice across Europe.
Taskforce on User Involvement
Chair – Sheila Payne.
A collaborative meeting was held during the Venezia congress to share ideas about research into carers. The meeting was well attended by a broad spectrum of clinicians. Since there is limited information on service user involvement across Europe, a questionnaire to seek factual information is in preparation. The Board of Directors of the EAPC have offered input and guidance to this project and the outcome of data collected will help to shape service delivery, education and public information materials.
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Philip Larkin
19th October 2006.
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