PCHPCA: Putnam County needs community-based palliative care

The Putnam County Hospice and Palliative Care Association (PCHPCA) is recognizing World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on Saturday, Oct. 9 to draw attention to a need for community-based palliative care services in Putnam County and other rural communities in Indiana.

This year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day theme is “Leave No One Behind: Equity in Access to Palliative Care.”

Access to hospice and palliative care where a patient calls home improves their quality of life, and allows patients and families to spend more time together and less time in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms, the organization advocates. It also protects medically vulnerable people from unnecessary exposure to COVID-19 and other illnesses.

“In addition to the absence of community-based palliative care services, terminally ill children in Putnam County are not always able to access hospice services,” PCHPCA Executive Director Elaine Peck said.

To begin addressing these service gaps, the PCHPCA is asking Putnam County citizens to contact their senators to support the Expanding Access to Palliative Care Act. This bill would direct the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to implement a community-based palliative care demonstration model.

Persons may contact their senators through the Hospice Action Network at https://www.hospiceactionnetwork.org/take-action/#/57.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is organized by the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, a global action network focusing exclusively on hospice and palliative care development worldwide. The Alliance will release a new report on equity in access to palliative care on Saturday.

The Putnam County Hospice and Palliative Care Association is a nonprofit public charity that has joined national, state and community efforts to increase the quality of life for seriously ill persons, their loved ones, their caregivers and the health care community in Putnam County.

For more information, contact Executive Director Elaine Peck at epeck@pchosp.org or visit www.pchpca.org.