IMPHAL, June 28: The All Manipur Working Journalists Union in collaboration with the Palliative Care Society, Manipur organised a one day awareness programme on Palliative Care in Manipur today at the Manipur Press Club.
AMWJU president W Shamjai, Palliative Care Society president Dr Kh Pallin and Palliative Care Society general secretary Dr Jugindro S attended the programme as presidium members.
Speaking on palliative care, Dr Jugindro said palliative care relieves suffering and improves the quality of life of people living with chronic and incurable illness.
He said it also improves the quantity of life for cancer sufferers, patients dying to chronic diseases, the terminally ill elders and people living with HIV/AIDS.
He further said that the palliative care responds to physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs and extends if necessary to support in bereavement. The palliative care is a patient centred treatment and not a disease-focused one.
There are 377 individuals in every lakh population who require palliative care and there are around 10,000 patients in Manipur requiring palliative care, he explained further.
Dr Jugindro added that the way of providing palliative care was introduced by Cicely Saunders in the 1970s in UK by establishing the first hospice centre called St Cristopher`™s Hospice in London.
Now USA has over 1500 hospice centres as it understand the value of palliative care, he continued.
The system is very costly and patients do not prefer to stay in hospice centres, he said.
However, Kerala took an initiative some 23 years ago by starting home visit based palliative care he said.
He continued that more than one thousand palliative care centres has been established in Kerala alone and large numbers of students of colleges, schools, nurses and medical students forms the basic support of their programme.
In Manipur since June 2014 more than 100 members have been trained in the basics of palliative care. A society called the Palliative Care Society, Imphal with the trainees as members was formed on April 16 2015 he added.
He further said that the society decided to adopt Thangmeiband constituency to start pilot project regarding Palliative care. As well as in month of November 19 and 20 a national conference on Palliative Care will be organised in the State.