Community Palliative Care in Kerala, India

Led by Professor David Clark, Professor Devi Vijay, Dr Ben Colburn, and Dr Jennifer Corns, and funded by the Scottish Funding Council, under its scheme for the Global Challenges Research Fund, this project will be the first to develop an evaluation model that can be used to assess the quality and outcomes of community palliative care in Kerala.

In November 2018, the members of the project team gathered in Dumfries, at the University of Glasgow School of Interdisciplinary Studies Campus, to kick off this new project with a series of workshops discussing strategy, research methods, and objectives for the project.

The week began with a presentation by Dr Suresh Kumar, who gave a one-hour lecture to over University of Glasgow Undergraduates studying the Level 2 ‘Global Challenges at the End of Life’ course.

On the 29th of November, Suresh Kumar and Devi Vijay opened the event with presentations on the history and achievements of Community Palliative Care in Kerala. This was 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.

The Project Team then settled in for two full days of discussion and planning; each member of the Team contributing a detailed presentation, developing ideas and strategies to help shape the project.

Dr Sandy Whitelaw and Dr Gitte Koksvik concluded the week with presentations on evaluation models, and the ethics of research.

Amongst other objectives, this project seeks to help service providers give better patient care, provide a benchmark for community organisations, and to provide information at a policy level. This project will run until the 31st June 2019 and seeks to further strengthen links with the palliative care community in Kerala. If you would like more information, please contact the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group at endoflifestudies@glasgow.ac.uk, or visit www.gla.ac.uk/endoflifestudies

Film by Emma Dove and Amy McCreadie