As part of our GCRF Project: Assessing Quality and Outcomes in a Community Form of Palliative Care Delivery in Kerala, India, funded by the Scottish Funding Council, we were proud to present special lectures from world leading experts in Palliative Care, Dr Suresh Kumar and Professor Devi Vijay.
These lectures were part of a larger 'Kick-Off' Workshop surrounding the project, and were presented to members of the project team, as well as a wider audience of staff, students and supporters associated with the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group.
We were delighted to welcome Dr Suresh Kumar, who began with an insight into the history of community palliative care in Kerala, with his lecture "Community Palliative Care in Kerala: Two Decades of Experience"
We then welcomed Professor Devi Vijay, who sparked engaging discussions with her lecture on "Research Perspectives, Achievements and Questions of Community Palliative Care in Kerala"
Dr Suresh Kumar;
Dr Kumar is an acknowledged leader of the community based approach to palliative care services. At the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Khozikode (Calicut), he conceptualised and implemented a series of Neighbourhood Networks in Palliative Care for Kerala that became the foundation of a community-based and volunteer-driven movement that has spread across the state and beyond, engaging thousands of volunteers and community supporters, and also achieving recognition at the policy level. He is a major voice in the compassionate communities movement and a hugely influential figure in the promotion of palliative care for low and middle income countries.
Professor Devi Vijay;
Professor Vijay's current work examines inequality, vulnerable communities, and mobilisation, with a focus on healthcare. She has been tracing the evolution of the community-based form for palliative care in Kerala, and its translations to other geographies. She has recently co-edited, "Alternative Organisations in India: Undoing Boundaries" (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and has published in journals such as Public Management Review, Marketing Theory, and Journal of Marketing Management. She was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2016) and was a visiting fellow at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University during the grant period. Recently she has collaborated with the Glasgow group and published work on the transfer of the Kerala model to West Bengal, India.