This year, the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA) integrates the commemorations of the International Day of Awareness for Pediatric Palliative Care and the World Day of Palliative Care, which are marked on 8 and 9 October, respectively, promoting activities aimed at professionals and users throughout the month.
The Algarve's Public Hospitals have provided Palliative Care for over 12 years. At the moment, CHUA has an Inpatient Unit in Portimão with 10 beds and another in Faro with 8 beds.
There is also, in each of these Units, an Intra-Hospital Support Team in Palliative Care, which has External Consultation, Day Hospital and Hospital Consultancy activities.
In the last year, in the Palliative Care Units of CHUA, 577 inpatients were received, 1163 consultations were carried out and more than 800 patients were followed by the Intra-Hospital Team.
The celebrations of the “month of Palliative Care” start, then, in Portimão in the first week, with the Photographic Exhibition entitled “Olhares sobre a Palliative Care”.
On display in the hall of the Hospital Unit of Portimão, this exhibition, which results from a partnership between the hospital service and the PALLIARE+ project, developed by the nurse Rui Correia as part of his academic training, illustrates the daily life of a Palliative Care Unit through the eyes, in this case through the camera lens, of Nurse Ana Sousa, who is part of the Palliative Care Unit team in Portimão.
The objective of this exhibition is to contribute to a greater knowledge of the population about Palliative Care, what it is, who it is intended for and how they can access it, as well as demystifying some concepts and myths associated with this theme.
World Palliative Care Day is celebrated annually on the second Saturday of October, promoted globally by Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (World Alliance for Palliative Care), with the aim of being a unified day of action to celebrate and support palliative care.
This year, the annual commemorative campaign is presented with the aim of spreading the true and positive message about this specialized area of healthcare and which, as such, must be accessible to ALL those who need it.
On the date that marks the International Day of Awareness for Pediatric Palliative Care, the 8th of October, CHUA will join the awareness action “Hat with aTTitude”, calling professionals and users to, during the day, wear a hat and to meet at 12:00 at the entrances of the Portimão and Faro to mark this ephemeris.
Also within the scope of Pediatric Palliative Care, the Pediatrics Service of the Portimão Unit promotes a session aimed at health professionals, on this topic, on the 15th between 9:00 am and 13:00 pm in the Auditorium of this unit, with online transmission to the Health Unit. Faro and for the Health Centers of the Algarve.
On the same day, in the afternoon, between 14 pm and 00 pm, also at the Portimão Unit, there will be a course on Communication of Bad News, aimed at health professionals.
The International Day for the Awareness of Pediatric Palliative Care has been marked since 2016 on the second Friday of October, and is promoted by International Children's Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) with the aim of raising awareness about the rights of children diagnosed with a complex chronic disease, requiring the intervention of teams in palliative care.
The activities of the month of Palliative Care end on October 24th, with awareness actions, promoted by the Palliative Care Service of the Unit of Faro.
These actions, which will take place in the morning, at the Municipal Market of Faro and, in the afternoon, at Forum Algarve, they are aimed at the general population and intend to make known this value, its objectives and the type of care provided to patients and families in this area.
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