New research published by The International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC) at Lancaster University (U.K.) has found that an estimated half of the world's 234 countries have no palliative care services available to their populations.

The report, Mapping levels of palliative care development: a global view, indicates that 33 percent have yet to take the first steps to build service capacity. In countries where hospice-palliative care services exist, provision is mostly localized, with only 15 percent of countries having achieved a measure of integration with mainstream healthcare providers.

The report also reveals a strong correlation between palliative care provision and levels of human development, as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index which assesses life expectancy, knowledge, and standard of living. The report includes a map, one of the first of its kind, which provides a graphic illustration of the variability of palliative care worldwide.

The goals of palliative care are to improve the quality of a seriously ill person's life and to support that person and their family during and after treatment.

"Despite increasing international calls for high quality end-of-life care to be recognized as a human right, there is clearly a long way to go before it is within reach of most of the people in the world," commented the Rev. Dr. Michael Wright, who led the project. "It is particularly unfortunate that countries where there is the most need, particularly those heavily affected by the AIDS epidemic, are often those with little or no hospice and palliative care services."

Stephen Connor, vice president of research and international development for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization remarked, "This valuable research provides really the first detailed global assessment of the availability of palliative care. It's critical that we have a baseline so that we can continue to measure our ongoing efforts to improve in countries across the globe and to support local palliative care champions."

In addition to its work on behalf of end-of-life care in the U.S., the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is committed to the development of palliative care services throughout the world. In the past year, the organization has collaborated on quality standards with several nations that include Uganda, India, Israel, Mongolia, Argentina, Moldova, Romania, and the Ukraine.

The report was produced for the World Wide Palliative Care Alliance (wwpca) to assist them in their advocacy work to make the case for hospice and palliative care globally. The full report is available online at NHPCO's Web site: nhpco/files/public/palliativecare/World_map_report_final-0107.pdf

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
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