World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is a global day of action organised by the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance and held on the second Saturday of October every year. It aims to:
- Raise awareness of the needs of people and families living with a life-limiting illness
- Create opportunities to talk about the issues around improving access to hospice and palliative care around the world
- Raise funds to develop and support hospice and palliative care services around the world
The theme this year is “Hidden Lives, Hidden Patients” – focusing on people whose palliative care needs are often not recognised, such as children, indigenous people, those living in rural settings, prisoners, soldiers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals.
To help to raise awareness about “Hidden Lives, Hidden Patients”, Palliverse and Palliative Care Australia invite everyone to join us for a tweet chat on Thursday, October 8th using the hashtag #PallANZ
When will the tweet chat be held?
- 7pm AEDT (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart)
- 6:30pm ACDT (Adelaide)
- 6pm AEST (Brisbane)
- 5:30pm ACST (Darwin)
- 4pm AWST (Perth)
- 9pm NZDT (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch)
- Other time zones, including London/Dublin 9am, Hong Kong/Singapore 4pm
What topics will we be discussing?
- T1: Who are the “hidden patients” with “hidden lives” and unmet palliative care needs in our community?
- T2: What keeps these patients and families “hidden” from palliative care?
- T3: What helps to “reveal” these patients & help them access palliative care?
- T4: How can we improve access to palliative care for “hidden patients” in our community?
Who should participate in the tweet chat?
- Anyone and everyone with an interest in these issues, including:
- Patients, families, carers
- Clinicians, researchers
- Managers, administrators, policymakers
- Other interested members of the community
- You don’t have to be an expert, a Twitter whiz or even live in Australia or New Zealand to participate – in fact, we strongly encourage those new to Twitter and from beyond our shores to join us and share your views!
For more information about Twitter and tweet chats, check out these wonderfully accessible articles by our very own @sonialf – 101 and 102. To find our more about World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, go to http://www.thewhpca.org/about. To discover what else is happening around Australia, visit http://palliativecare.org.au/whpcd2015/
palliverse.com 