“The last few years have been grief filled – for everyone. Globally, there are billions of ‘the walking wounded’ and we are all grieving.”

These are the words of Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA) CEO Dr Ewa Skowronska, who urges you to wear a ribbon on your right wrist to celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day today.

This year’s theme is ‘Healing hearts and communities’. “There are those who face life-threatening diagnoses and there are those who grieve both literal and emotional deaths, but there is hope. We can help each other to heal hearts and communities,” adds Skowronska.

The annual awareness day is particularly poignant this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic years as well as the socio-economic and political volatility that the globe experiences.

Palliative care

HCPA chairman Dr Aslam Dasoo explains that palliative care is understood as: “The management of a person’s living journey in the face of terminal disease until their death, by bringing them a measure of comfort and dignity in the process. Palliation certainly does this, but it encompasses so much more.”

He says palliative care is also a ‘medical and psycho-social scientific discipline’. “It offers insights to society about the wider necessity of palliative care for those with life-threatening illness. Bereavement encompasses grief, the evolutionary mechanism that helps all sentient beings to not only process the pain of the loss of loved ones, but to also enfold memory into their consciousness in order to allow them to continue with the life journey we all have to complete.”

People’s relationship with grief

Author of The Grief Handbook, Bridget McNulty, says people are awkward about grief. “However, we need to bring it to the surface – it’s the one thing we are all guaranteed to experience in life. The ribbons in the HPCA campaign communicate the individual nature of grief. People can wear any colour, any size, any shape – tied however they wish. Just like grief: There’s no right or wrong way to do it,” she explains.

Skowronska warns: “Approximately 7% of people experiencing loss suffer from ‘complicated grieving’, which is accompanied by the continued, persistent and unresolved feeling of grief, rendering them unable to function normally and inducing symptoms of clinical depression.”

#Palliativecare can put life into your days – it is not just about care at the end of your life. Palliative care empowers the patient as well as family members and carers. Ennie shares her story and explains what palliative care has done for her. #hospicecare #patientpower pic.twitter.com/x565CCZ3q6

— APCC (@APCC_SA) January 13, 2021

Support the cause

“The theme for this year’s day complements our own focus on growing societies’ courage to heal,” says Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation CEO Janet Jobson. “The Arch was a founding patron of HPCA almost 40 years ago now. He was a fierce advocate for access to palliative care and dignified dying as a human right. For these reasons the Tutu Legacy Foundation supports the call to wear a ribbon on their right wrist – to honour our grief; individually and collectively.”

The palliative care sector in SA

“The sector has played an enormous role in the last few years,” says Lawrence Mandikiana, the deputy director at the National Department of Health who is responsible for co-ordinating the roll-out of palliative care across the country.

Mandikiana adds that there is a renewed focus on and commitment to the sector. “There is an increased recognition of the role that palliative care plays in healthcare. That of support for anyone with a life-threatening diagnosis, and their loved ones.”

Wear a ribbon, make a difference

The HCPA calls on you to show solidarity with those experiencing grief from the loss of loved ones and to support the palliative care centres in providing essential care to those nearing the end of their life’s journey.

Ribbons are available via hospices for purchase and the money raised will go to the hospices that the ribbons are purchased from. For a full list of participating hospices, visit this website.

To donate to one of the 92 hospice members the HCPA supports , click here.