Browsing by Author "Luyirika, Emmanuel B.K."

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    Best Practices in Developing a National Palliative Care Policy in Resource Limited Settings: Lessons from Five African Countries
    (Ecancermedicalscience, 2016) Luyirika, Emmanuel B.K.; Namisango, Eve; Garanganga, Eunice; Monjane, Lidia; Ginindza, Ntombi; Kiyange, Fatia
    Given the high unmet need for palliative care in Africa and other resource limited settings, it is important that countries embrace the public health approach to increasing access through its integration within existing healthcare systems. To give this approach a strong foundation that would ensure sustainability, the World Health Organisation urges member states to ensure that policy environments are suitable for this intervention. The development, strengthening, and implementation of national palliative care policies is a priority. Given the lack of a critical mass of palliative care professionals in the region and deficiency in documenting and sharing best practices as part of information critical for regional development, policy development becomes a complex process. This article shares experiences with regard to best practices when advocating the national palliative care policies. It also tells about policy development process, the important considerations, and cites examples of policy content outlines in Africa.
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    COVID-19 and Palliative Care Capacity, African Region
    (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2021) Afolabi, Oladayo A.; Abboah-Offei, Mary; Namisango, Eve; Chukwusa, Emeka; Oluyase, Adejoke O.; Luyirika, Emmanuel B.K.; Harding, Richard; Nkhoma, Kennedy
    Palliative care is included within the universal health coverage goal of the sustainable development goals as an essential health service and is considered a human right.1 The seventy-third World Health Assembly recommended palliative care as a core component within the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response plans of Member States. However, the neglect of palliative care is a well established problem worldwide. Of the roughly 60 million people experiencing serious health-related suffering who would benefit from palliative care in a given year, over 80% live in developing countries where such care is scarce or non-existent.2 Mortality projections from the World Health Organization show an anticipated rapid increase in serious health-related suffering at the end of life in the coming decades.3 Delivering timely, appropriate and effective palliative care is a pressing challenge highlighted by the morbidity and mortality caused by COVID-19.
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    Do the Clinical Management Guidelines for Covid-19 in African Countries Reflect the African Quality Palliative Care Standards? A Review of Current Guideline
    (Journal of pain and symptom management, 2021) Afolabi, Oladayo A.; Abboah-Offei, Mary; Namisango, Eve; Luyirika, Emmanuel B.K.; Nkhoma, Kennedy
    Palliative care should be a component of COVID-19 management to relieve suffering, improve patient outcomes and save cost. We aimed to identify and critically appraise the palliative care recommendations within COVID-19 case management guidelines in African countries.The study employed systematic guideline review design. All guidelines from any country in Africa, of any language, published between December 2019 and June 2020 were retrieved through online search and email to in-country key contacts. We conducted a content analysis of the palliative care recommendations within the guidelines and appraised the recommendations using African Palliative Care Association standards for providing quality palliative care.We retrieved documents from 29 of 54 African countries. Fifteen documents from 15 countries were included in the final analysis, of which eight countries have identifiable PC recommendations in their COVID-19 management guidelines. Of these eight, only one country (South Sudan) provided comprehensive palliative care recommendations covering the domains of physical, psychological, social and spiritual wellbeing, two (Namibia and Uganda) addressed only physical and psychological wellbeing while the remaining five countries addressed only physical symptom management.Comprehensive palliative care which addresses physical, psychological, social and spiritual concerns must be prioritized within case management guidelines in African countries.