We are deeply saddened by the unexpected loss of our EUPCA-Alumni Dr. Juan-Pablo Leiva, announced last week by our colleagues at SECPAL. On behalf of our entire team and the EUPCA family we woud like to offer our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, patients and all who knew him.

The following text is a translation of the SECPAL statement:

The Spanish Society for Palliative Care regrets the death of its president, Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva.
We regret to announce the unexpected death of Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva, President of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care (SECPAL) and the SECPAL Foundation, and we convey our deepest condolences and warm embrace to his family and all his loved ones, whom we accompany in their grief.
Dr. Leiva, a specialist in Family and Community Medicine and a pioneer in the development of renal palliative care in Spain, worked as a palliative physician at the Santa Marina Hospital in Bilbao (Osakidetza). He assumed the presidency of SECPAL in February 2021, a challenge he faced “with gratitude and humility” and which has led him to undertake a tireless struggle to advance towards the full development of palliative care, which he considered “the strategic key to the humanisation of health”.
His firm commitment to consensus and collaboration has led him to establish numerous strategic alliances with scientific societies, associations, foundations, universities and other organisations, with the aim of promoting a broad social movement in defence of comprehensive and quality end-of-life care as a universal right.
After hearing the sad news of his passing, the SECPAL Board of Directors and the entire palliative care community would like to express their gratitude for the dedication and enthusiasm of Dr. Juan Pablo Leiva in promoting the work of our scientific society through a multitude of innovative projects and initiatives with which he sought to challenge and involve all social agents in what he considered “a historic moment” for the development of palliative care.

Marius Ciurlionis (Vilnius, Lithuania) talks about the role of leadership during the pandemic from the perspective of the Ministry of Health

Dr Zuzana Křemenová (Prague, Czech Republic) presents her leadership story during the pandemic in the Czech Republic

Dr Georg Bollig (Denmark) on the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of Last Aid International and Last Aid Courses for the public.

On Tuesday, October 26th 2021, Dr. Gerrit Frerich, EUPCA Coordinator from the University Hospital Cologne, held a presentation at the 14th annual conference of the Spanish Society for Palliative Care (SECPAL). This conference gathers palliative care (henceforth: PC) experts from Spain and beyond to present on recent developments in the field, showcase their ideas, and help drive forward PC supply.

 

As coordinator of a PC leadership curriculum, Dr. Frerich talked about Leadership and Leadership Education in Palliative Care. Coming from a distinguished German hospital, he first talked about the status quo in Germany with a special focus on the national Hospice and PC act which is unique to Germany. Introduced in 2015, it has produced a variety of favourable outcomes for national palliative and hospice care. He then contrasted the concepts of leadership vs. management, and presented different leadership styles and frameworks that can be found in a PC environment, such as shared leadership or charismatic leadership, and their respective benefits and limitations. Furthermore, he presented the first brand new outcomes from the EAPC Leadership Task Force which is responsible for compiling a list of international PC leadership programmes, a list of international PC leadership experts, and for establishing a consensus on recommendations on core competencies in PC leadership. Among other results, they found out that teamwork ist he most important skillset for a leader, and that PC leaders need to embrace the holistic PC approach. Further results will help to make recommendations on contents and didactics of PC leadership education.

 

Finally, he put the spotlight of some of the aforementioned PC leadership curricula: a joint PC MSc Programme from three universities in Austria, a PC Nurse Fellowship programme at Makere University in Uganda, a Strategic Leadership Programme by Hospice UK and the Westscott Group, a Fellowship in PC programme at St. Christopher’s Hospice in the UK, and finally the International MSc Leadership in Palliative Care. This programme is hosted by 5 different renowned institutions across Europe and facilitated in cooperation with EUPCA, and has trained more than 80 participants in PC leaderhsip since ist establishment in 2013.

At the EAPC Congress on October 7th, the EUPCA Leadership Award in cooperation with EAPC was jointly awarded by Dr. Gerrit Frerich, EUPCA coordinator, and Prof. Dr. Christoph Ostgathe, President of EAPC. The recipient of this year’s award was St. Christopher’s Hospice, represented by Dr. Libby Sallnow, in partnership with the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Kerala, India, for their “Fellowship in Palliative Care” programme. For this programme, in collaboration with the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Pondicherry, India and the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, St. Christopher’s Hospice draws together a group of palliative care leaders from low- and middle-income countries who together to generate in-depth knowledge of core issues in organising palliative care at the grassroot level. The programme is taught using a wide range of contemporary teaching methods. Congratulations to St. Christopher’s Hospice for this excellent programme!

Link to the EAPC blog:
Winner of the Third Leadership Award 2021: Fellowship in Palliative Care
 

If you would like to know more about the programme, you can click on the links below

https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/st-christophers-education/training-and-research/fellowship-in-palliative-care/

https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/care_news/fellowshipprogramme/

We are pleased to invite you to this year’s Online EAPC Leadership Day in cooperation of EUPCA and LDI on Tuesday 05.10.2021 from 3pm to 6pm CET. The registration is free. Attached you will find the program including speakers from EUPCA and LDI.

For more information:
EAPC: https://www.eapc-2021.org/eupca-workshop/
Facebook: https://fb.me/e/4KyhnuKJH

 

 

We sincerely congratulate our EUPCA alumnus Georg Bollig on receiving the Order of Merit of the State of Schleswig Holstein. He supports the efforts of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament to improve the palliativecare and outpatient and inpatient hospice care in the state. He is the initiator of the “Letzte Hilfe Kurse” (last aid courses) and has been advocating for years to take away people’s fear of coming into contact with death. He has successfully managed to arouse interest in his work beyond the borders of Schleswig-Holstein and Germany, he has also succeeded in arousing interest in his work beyond the borders of Schleswig-Holstein and Germany. “Letzte Hilfe Kurse” are not only offered nationwide, but are also attracting great interest in European countries. To date, more than 28,000 have taken part in “Letzte Hilfe Kurse” and more than 2,000 have been trained as course trained as course leaders.