On 15th October, Anne-Sophie Parent, Secretary-General of AGE Platform Europe, signed the Palliative Care 2020 Declaration on accesible, quality palliative care in Europe, presented at the closure event of the Impact and EuroImpact projects in Brussels.
This Declaration calls for the extension of good quality palliative care as a means to improve the quality of life of patients, people of all ages with serious health problems and their relatives. It goes beyond the traditional approaches by fully taking into account the social aspects as well as the need to consider the use of palliative care also in situations where end of life is not the only possible outcome.
Palliative Care 2020 also calls for more research in this field and to acknowledge the social and economic benefits it can bring in the use of the available services and resources in health care and long term care.
AGE Platform Europe is currently involved in palliative care through PACE, an EU-funded project looking into palliative care delivery in the long term care facilities of six European countries. The objective of the project is to produce a good quality evidence-based standard practice of palliative care. AGE will disseminate the findings and connect the evolution of the project to EU-level policy initiatives. It will also involve the relevant Task Forces, on Healthy Ageing and Dignified Ageing. This was already the case during the joint meeting of those two task-forces that took place in Brussels on 19th November, where PACE was presented and discussed.
You can read and sign the Palliative Care 2020 Declaration here, and learn more about PACE on the project website.