The 2024 Public Health Palliative Care International Conference and related events

.

2024 Public Health Palliative Care International Conference

Written by Wendy English (and all photographs taken by Wendy, as well!)

The beautiful and historic city of Bern hosted the 8th PHPCI Conference in autumnal glory. Bern is a small city, rich with atmosphere, cobbled streets, ancient buildings, with the Swiss Alps as a backdrop. One of the interesting features of this conference is that it linked together three events organised by the same conference team: The Conference, the Academy and the Bern City festival. I describe my experiences of all three below.

The PHPCI Conference

Photograph of Swiss & NZ Colleagues 

The conference theme was ‘Building bridges between science and people’, and there were over 400 registrations with 50 countries represented. Te Ārai was represented by Tess Moeke Maxwell, Jackie Robinson, Lisa Williams and Wendy English. Tess and Jackie both presented in the ‘Building Equity’ Session which generated good discussion. Tess also presented in the ‘Experiencing bereavement and caregiving’ parallel session. Wendy presented her PhD research in the ‘Transforming Professional Education’ parallel session.

Conference themes included: Developing and measuring death literacy, connecting communities, inclusion and equity, and thinking bigger with global compassion.

A highlight for me was the plenary session on Thursday morning. It was extraordinary. Chaired by Christian Ntzimira (Rwanda) who enlivened for us all the Rwandan concept of Ubuntu as the basis for community growth and connection. Ubuntu is captured by looking at your neighbours and saying, “I am because we are.” Christian reminded us that 30 years ago in 1994, one million Tutsi people were killed in Rwanda in 100 days. He has seen first-hand that a key way back for his country from this genocide has been through compassionate communities based on Ubuntu.

Next Steffen Eychmüller announced the Bern Declaration, a statement endorsed by PHPCI, that urges government and civic organisations to implement seven principles and actions to support those living with serious illness, grief and loss. Provided here is the link to the Bern Declaration with a QR code to give feedback.

Following the Bern Declaration was a bold humanitarian statement from Rachel Coglan and Prof Samar Aoun both from Australia calling for a united compassionate approach against armed conflict. They called for us to consider that as a group of people concerned with palliative care and public health it is essential for us to speak up against all armed conflict in the world. Palliative care is difficult to achieve in war zones and areas deprived of human rights. This was a deeply resonant presentation that reflected the current expanding tensions of war in the world. There was a petition circulating for those who opposed armed conflict statement. Many people signed.

The tone of Friday was that of wrapping up and looking forward. My impression is that the theme of the conference was achieved with many bridges made between people, countries, projects and ideas. For the New Zealand-wide contingent there was inspiration to grow our own compassionate communities and work towards a national organisation to become a compassionate country!

The next conference will be In Taipei, Taiwan 2026.

The City Festival

.

Bern is a Compassionate City with a Bern Charter for a shared end of life (2020), strong Mayoral understanding and civic support. Building on this compassionate status, a festival was organised In collaboration with Bärn Treit (Bearing the end of life together), and “ Endlich Menschlich” or “ Finally Human.” Through this collaboration the city festival was connected to the conference and also open to the people of Bern and its visitors. The city festival programme was diverse covering topics of death dying grief and care. This festival definitely added connection to music, culture and gave both sensory depth and lightness. Events included:

·       Musical events

·       Art displays

·       Market stalls

·       Before I die wall

·       Guided city walks

·       Ceremony of lights and much more

Attending the Academy Schloss Münchenwiler

From the 18-20th October, I was very fortunate to attend a special academy as a precursor to the PHPCI conference in Bern. This was 3 days of workshops on topics related to public health palliative care research. Applications to attend were limited to 30 PhD candidates and early career researchers from around the world. The previous conference held a similar “summer school” which was hailed as a successful way to network and support new researchers in the field.

This academy was held in a small town Münchenwiler, a short journey from Bern. The venue was a beautiful schloss (castle) in a rural setting, now used for conferences and weddings. The entire stay including accommodation, food and fees for each attendee was funded from a successful Swiss government grant application. (Danke!)

The first evening was enchanting as we met each other in the candlelit church with a buffet dinner and wine. We were warmly welcomed by Steffen Eychmüller, Monika Hagemann, and Sybille Felber our Swiss hosts, academy and conference organisers.

Over the next three days we worked hard. It was remarkable to be in the same room as some of my academic heroes, with an impressive group of emerging researchers. Group discussions were lively.

The four workshop topics were:

• Theoretical frameworks and underlying ideas- Chaired by Luc Deliens (Belgium) and Libby Sallnow (UK)

• Community-based participatory action research – Chaired by Carol Tishelman (Sweden) and Kelli Stajduhar (Canada)

• Evaluation of complex programs- Chaired by Valentina Gonzales-Jaramillo (Switzerland) and Guy Peryer (UK)

• Questionnaire and survey design- chaired by Joachim Cohen (Belgium) and Therese Johansson (UK)

The workshops were interactive and grounded in practical experience with hot tips like “Be curious, and driven by what you do not know.”  We had invaluable access to experts who shared their knowledge and ideas generously. As a result of this time, I also have a network of 28 colleagues on a WhatsApp group from Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia, Singapore, Spain, US, UK, Colombia, Belgium, Japan, Lebanon, Austria, and Canada. I am now aware of and inspired by some of the amazing research that is being done around the world in this field.

I heartily recommend this type of forum to early career researchers interested in palliative care and public health.

If you are interested, contact Wendy to hear more!