Palliative Care for Chronic Cancer Patients in the Community

Palliative Care for Chronic Cancer Patients in the Community: Global Approaches and Future Applications offers a much-needed account of the current state of global palliative care in the community - the good, the bad and, especially, the hopeful.  This extraordinary compendium, with chapters form 46 countries, edited by Professor Michael Silbermann, tells the remarkable stories of palliative care - from grass-root efforts by volunteers in resource-constrained countries such as India to the full integration of palliative care in high-resource countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.  What is so unique about this book is that it captures the enormous range and diversity of palliative care efforts: some led by nurses (Iran), some led by governments (Turkey) and many led by local charities and non-governmental agencies.  Readers of this textbook can also learn about the challenges of a government-led palliative care initiative in the post-genocide era in Rwanda or the attempts to provide palliative care services in the conflict zones of Iraq, Palestine and Sudan. Contextual issues requiring cultural sensitivity in Afghanistan, Latin America and the Middle East present a real picture of both the exceptional leadership and environmental hardships that palliative care advocates face in their journeys forward.  Each of the 53 chapters in the book tells a narrative of the country's own experience, thus creating a source of on the ground information outlining the barriers, challenges and successes as individual efforts progress.  Many reports in the book point toward real change and hope as they relate to healthcare providers becoming empowered advocates for their patients.  There are high expectations for the role of nurses to continue to grow.  Educating and engaging patients, and the families in their care, has had a measurably positive impact on outcomes.The collaborative spirit of this book gives voice to the incredible vision, tenacity and resilience of the teams of professionals and their supporters who work in palliative care, particularly those who work in the community. In addition, it underscores that all future efforts can only be successful with the concerted and continuous commitments of governments, academics and NGOs across and within national boundaries.                  - HRH Princess Dina Mired   President - Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)