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Unheard, unseen, under-served: Placing lived experiences at the heart of palliative care reform 

Costa Rica

World Health Organization | 01 May 2025

Last week the NCD Department hosted a webinar "Unheard, unseen, under-served: Placing lived experiences at the heart of palliative care reform ”

 

The event highlight the importance of integrating palliative care as a core component of NCD management to improve quality of life and health outcomes, while recognizing the need to listen and incorporate the experiences of those with lived experiences.


Speakers from Philippines, Costa Rica, Uganda and Malawi described country case studies illustrating strategies for integration of palliative care into health systems, with emphasis on participatory approaches for people-centered care. 

 

The webinar focused on key challenges and solutions related to integration into primary care and ensuring access to controlled medicines (opioids), while emphasizing the importance of incorporating insights from lived experiences to design innovative, people-centered solutions that address unmet needs and ensure equitable, sustainable palliative care services. 

 

 

Key Messages which were shared during the event included: 

  • Palliative care should never be an afterthought in national health systems planning.  
  • Palliative care is essential—not only for those with cancer, but for anyone with a serious illness. 
  • We must listen more to those with lived experience- their voices are essential to designing services that better meet the needs of people, families, and communities.  
  • WHO remains deeply committed to supporting countries to integrate palliative care into health systems
  • There are successful models of integrating palliative care into primary care, the webinar featured examples from Philippines and Costa Rica
  • Solutions to address challenges in opioid access include training, advocacy, and

 working with regulators, the webinar featured examples from Uganda and Malawi

 

 

A recording is available here: https://who.zoom.us/rec/share/Vsl8jJHau83k4Ebh7XuXtzZjybHlnkI5gAQSuXlJXRZjmhz0yjMJboH-NL1ErIgt.lgx5jWX3uT-gQEq2

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