Palliative Care

and COVID-19

Resources relevant to Palliative Care and COVID-19

The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) has compiled this list of resources relevant to palliative care and COVID-19 published by academia, civil society organizations, member states and special agencies of the United Nations, with links to all of the websites and documents listed.

In the spirit of solidarity, the four global palliative care organizations [the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies (PalCHASE), and the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA)] joined forces to develop a project on Palliative Care and COVID-19. The objective of the series is to provide globally relevant information and guidance to civil society and UN Organizations, policymakers, administrators, and health care providers on palliative care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The four organizations invited experts from around the world to produce a series of Briefing Notes followed by weekly webinars. We hope that the Briefing Notes and Webinars will serve to strengthen health systems and further integrate palliative care in policies and national health strategies.

To register for the weekly webinars based on these Briefing Notes, use this link: https://bit.ly/2KCxFxt  (Note: you need to register for each webinar separately). Webinars are recorded - past webinars can be seen in the Webinars, Videos and Apps section in this website.

Briefing Notes (in progress - updated continuously)
  1. How Pandemics Affect Health Systems and Resource Allocation: Impact for Palliative Care
  2. Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic for Low and Middle-Income Countries
  3. The COVID-19 Pandemic: Palliative Care and Human Rights
  4. Bio-ethical Principles, Practices and Recommendations Relevant to the COVID-19
  5. Global Availability of Internationally Controlled Essential Medicines
  6. Recommendations for Symptom Control of Patients with COVID-19
  7. Palliative Care for Patients with Cancer in Lower-and Middle Income Countries
  8. The Suffering of Isolated Patients and Families. The psychological and social implications of physical isolation for patients and families during the coronavirus pandemic.
  9. Interprofessional Spiritual Care in the Time of COVID-19
  10. Grief and Bereavement for Family Members who Can't Visit their Sick Relatives or Attend Funeral Services
  11. How People with Pre-Existing Palliative Care Needs are Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic
  12. Caring for Children with Underlying Serious Health Conditions During COVID-19 Pandemic
  13. Symptom Control at the End of Life in Children with COVID-19 Infection
  14. The Social Impact of COVID-19 on Children with Palliative Care Needs and their Families
  15. Psychological and Spiritual Impact of COVID-19 on Children with Palliative Care Needs
  16. Palliative Care for Older Persons infected with COVID-19
  17. Palliative Care in Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Crises
  18. Meeting the Palliative Care needs of People with Physical and Intellectual Disabilities
  19. The role of tele-medicine: Remote access to patients, caregivers and health workers
  20. Self-Care for Caregivers during the Covid-19 Pandemic
  21. Advocacy and implementation of WHA 73 Resolution
  22. Fundraising

General on COVID-19
Publications - issues relevant to palliative care and COVID-19
  1. Abu-Odah, H., Molassiotis, A. & Liu, J. Challenges on the provision of palliative care for patients with cancer in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of reviews. BMC Palliat Care 19, 55 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-020-00558-5
  2. Adams C. Goals of Care in a Pandemic: Our Experience and Recommendations, JPSM 2020 (in press). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.018
  3. Arya A, Buchman S,  Gagnon B, Downar J. Pandemic palliative care: beyond ventilators and saving lives. CMAJ 2020. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.200465
  4. Bajwah S, Wilcock A, Towers R, Costantini M, et al. Managing the supportive care needs of those affected by COVID-19. European Respiratory Journal 2020; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00815-2020
  5. British Medical Journal - Managing COVID-19 Symptoms(including at the end of life) in the community: summary of NICE guidelines. BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1461 (Published 20 April 2020)
  6. Ciruzzi MS. Algunos apuntes bioéticos, paliativos y legales sobre la pandemia de COVID-19. La Ley. AÑO LXXXIV Nº 80. TOMO LA LEY 2020-B. Buenos Aires, Argentina 2020. ISSN 0024-1636.
  7. Cooper Z, Bernacki RE. To Face Coronavirus Disease 2019, Surgeons Must Embrace Palliative Care. JAMA Surg. 2020. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2020.1698
  8. Costantini M, Sleeman KE, Peruselli C, Higginson IJ Response and role of palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national telephone survey of hospices in Italy. Palliative Medicine 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216320920780
  9. Downar, J, Seccareccia, D. Palliating a pandemic: All patients must be cared for. JPSM, 2010; 39(2), 291-295 DOI.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2009.11.241 
  10. Escobio F, Nouvet E. Ebola virus disease and palliative care in humanitarian crises. Lancet 2019;393:1100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30295-8
  11. Etkind SN, Bone AE, Lovell N, Crippss RL, Harding R, Higginson IJ, Sleeman KE, - The role and response of palliative care and hospice services in epidemics and pandemics: a rapid review to inform practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. JPMS 2020 (in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.029
  12. Fausto J,  Hirano L, Lam D,  et al. Creating a Palliative Care Inpatient Response Plan for COVID19 – The UW Medicine Experience JPSM 2020 (in press) DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.025
  13. Ferguson L, Barham D. Palliative Care Pandemic Pack: a Specialist Palliative Care Service response to planning the COVID-19 pandemic. JPSM 2020 (in press).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.026
  14. Fusi-Schmidhauser T, Preston N, Nikola K, Gamondi C. Conservative management of COVID-19 patients-emergency palliative care in action. JPSM 2020 (in press) DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.030
  15. Goldenberg DL. COVID-19: What It Means for Diabetics, The Obese and Those with Other Immune Diseases. Practical Pain Management (PPM) April 2020 
  16. Gostin LO, Friedman EA, Wetter SA. Responding to COVID‐19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically. The Hastings Center Report 2020 (in press). https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1090
  17. Hollander JE, Carr BG. Virtually Perfect? Telemedicine for Covid-19. NEJM 2020 (in press) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2003539
  18. Jennings N, Chambaere K, Deliens L, Cohen J. Trends in place of death in a small developing country: a population-level study using date certificate data. jech 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2019-213285
  19. Kunz R, Minder M. COVID-19 Pandemic: palliative care for elderly and frail patients at home and in residential and nursing homes. Swiss Med Wkly 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2020.20235
  20. Leong, Ian Yi-Onn, Angel Onn-Kei Lee, Tzer Wee Ng, Lay Beng Lee, et al. The challenge of providing holistic care in a viral epidemic: opportunities for palliative care. Palliative Medicine 18, no. 1 (2004): 12-18 doi.org/10.1191/0269216304pm859oa
  21. Lohman D, Barrett D. Scheduling medicines as controlled substances: addressing normative and democratic gaps through human rights-based analysis. BMC International Human Rights 20, 10(2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12914-020-00231-1
  22. Lovell N, Maddocks M, Etkind SN, Taylor K, Carey I, Vora V, Marsh L, Higginson IJ, Prentice W, Edmonds P, Sleeman KE. Characteristics, symptom management and outcomes of 101 patients with COVID-19 referred for hospital palliative care. JPSM 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.015
  23. Lu E. Communication Strategies for Kidney Disease in the Time of COVID-19. JPM 2020. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2020.0217
  24. Masumi U, Martins R, Hendrie PC, McDonnell T, Crews JR, Wong TL, McCreery B et al. Managing Cancer Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Agility and Collaboration Toward a Common Goal. JNCCN 1, no. aop (2020): 1-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2020.7560
  25. Nouvet, Elysée, Mollie Sivaram, Kevin Bezanson, Gautham Krishnaraj, Matthew Hunt, Sonya de Laat, Stephanie Sanger, Laura Banfield, Pedro Favila Escobio Rodriguez, and Lisa J. Schwartz. Palliative care in humanitarian crises: a review of the literature. Journal of International Humanitarian Action 3, 1(2018):5. doi.org/10.1186/s41018-018-0033-8
  26. Pettus K, Cleary JF, De Lima L, Ahmed E, Radbruch L. Availability of Internationally Controlled Essential Medicines in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journals of Pain and Symptom Management, 2020 (in press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.153
  27. Powell VD, Silveira MJ. What Should Palliative Care's Response be to the COVID-19 Epidemic? JPSM 2020 (in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.013
  28. Radbruch L, Knaul FM, de Lima L, de Joncheere C, Bhadelia A. The key role of palliative care in response to the COVID-19 tsunami of suffering. The Lancet 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30964-8 
  29. Rose C. Am I Part of the Cure or Am I Part of the Disease? Keeping Coronavirus Out When a Doctor Comes Home. NEJM 2020 (in press) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2004768
  30. Rosenbaum L. Facing Covid-19 in Italy—Ethics, Logistics, and Therapeutics on the Epidemic’s Front Line. NEJM 2020 (in press) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2005492
  31. Selman Lucy E, Chao D, Sowden R, Marshall S, Chamberlain Ch, Koffman J. Bereavement support on the frontline of COVID-19: Recommendations for hospital clinicians. JPSM 2020(in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.024
  32. Tran D, Lai S, Salah R, Wong A, Bryon J, McKenna M, Chan Y. Rapid De-Escalation and Triaging Patients in Community-Based Palliative Care. JPSM 2020 (in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.040
  33. Truog RD, Mitchell C, Daley, GQ. The Toughest Triage — Allocating Ventilators in a Pandemic NEJM 2020 (in press). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2005689
  34. Turner J, Hodgson LE, Leckie T, Eade L, Ford-Dunn S. A dual-centre observational review of hospital based palliative care in patients dying with COVID-19. JPSM 2020(in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.031
  35. Waldman E, Glass M (eds) - A Field Manual for Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crises (Book). Oxford University Press 2019 DOI: 10.1093/med/9780190066529.001.0001 (open access)
  36. Wallace CL, Wladkowoski SP, Gibson A, White P.  - Grief During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations for Palliative Care Providers. JPSM 2020 (in press) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.012
  37. Wang Samuel S.Y., Teo Wendy Z.W., Teo Winnie Z.Y., Chai Yong Woon. Virtual Reality as a Bridge in Palliative Care during COVID-19. JPM 2020 https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2020.0212
  38. Weaver MS, Wiener L.  Applying Palliative Care Principles to Communicate with Children about COVID-19. JPSM 2020 (in presss) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.020
  39. Wu Y, Wang J, Luo C, Hu S, Lin X, Anderson AE, Bruera E, Yang X, Wei S, Qian Y. A comparison of burnout frequency among oncology physicians and nurses working on the front lines and usual wards during the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China. JPSM 2020(in press) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.008

Do you have or know of any resources or publications that are not included?

This website is managed by the IAHPC and is offered to the global palliative care community as a common shared space to do global advocacy for palliative care. For more information contact the IAHPC.