Supportive and Palliative Care WG

Chairperson

Tiina Hannele Saarto

The Supportive and Palliative Care Working Group “S&PC WG” aims to create a network of experts giving a better access to quality supportive and palliative care to all cancer patients.

Cancer care is based on multidisciplinary teamwork including palliative and supportive care. According to the WHO definition, the focus should be on the early integration of palliative care in the course of illness with other therapies that are intended to prolong life to prevent and relief of suffering by means of better understand and manage distressing clinical complications throughout the disease trajectory. Palliative and supportive care aim to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families helping them to cope with the illness and live as actively as possible by the prevention and treatment of physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering including rehabilitation, nutritional support, symptom control both treatment and disease related, psychosocial support and spiritual counselling.

The mission of the S&PC WG is to give to more patients and their families a better access to high quality palliative and supportive care services throughout Europe.

The main objectives of WG are:

share the common vision of modern early integrated palliative and supportive care
develop appropriate quality indicators and standards for care service in the OECI member institutes
implement clinical and health service research projects through the OECI network of palliative care units in collaboration with other European networks of palliative care

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