Conference Agenda

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Session Overview
Session
Workshop 2b: Building a compassionate Community: where do I start?
Time:
Wednesday, 23/Oct/2024:
11:00am - 12:30pm

 Location: Hotel Kreuz - Room "Fischer"

Language: English

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Presentations

Building a compassionate Community: where do I start?

Esther Nafula Wekesa1, Saif Mohammed2

1Kenyatta National Hospital; Nairobi, Kenya; 2Institute of Palliative Medicine, Kerala; India

Target audience

  1. Participants wishing to start compassionate communities in their set up
  2. Participants who already have compassionate communities in their set up
  3. Participants who run compassion programs in their set up

Learning objectives

  1. Expand knowledge on compassionate communities
  2. Sharing experiences on compassionate community programs
  3. Develop a check list for starting a compassionate community

Structure of the workshop

1. Introduction – 15 minutes

The facilitators will introduce the participants to each other then the concept of compassionate communities. Compassionate communities are rooted in a health promotion approach to palliative care and encouraging end of life care within communities. In many cultures, taking care of the sick and dying was done within communities and in the past cultures had ways of supporting such individuals and families. The culture evolved due to colonization, modernization, education and uptake of religion. Many individuals now live and work in urban centers. Research shows that many patients still prefer to die at home but this is often not possible due to perceptions within communities. It is perceived as neglect when a patient dies at home and other challenges such as lack of caregivers or living in rental houses also makes it difficult to honour wishes of the dying. Many individuals end up dying in hospitals surrounded by healthcare providers and medical machines.

Compassionate communities is therefore a public health approach to provision of palliative care by creating interactions between palliative care providers, local or government administration and communities.

2. Sharing experiences – 15 minutes

The facilitators will ask participants to give their experiences on starting or running compassionate communities. The focus will be on how they started, what has worked for them and what lessons they have learned. These can be shared by upto 5 participant.

3. Developing a check list – 30 minutes

The participants will be split into smaller groups of about 7 – 10 participants and asked to discuss for 10 minutes and create a check list of items, resources, personnel that are crucial before starting a compassionate community. The session will be wrapped up by presentations from the group and creating one checklist.