On Day 5 of the World Health Assembly (WHA), our Chair read out a statement with the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), also ensuring dementia was represented at the WHA, and included in the discussions on palliative care and hospice. DAI was honoured to be able to work with the WHPCA, and to read out the joint statement.
Until quite recently, it was believed peole with dementia didn't feel pain, and we did not even qualify for palliative care or admission to a hospice unit. We now know this to be wrong, for it to be a breach of human rights, and thankfully, there has been much advocacy by many individuals and organisatons to ensure palliative care is provided for people with dementia. You can watch Kate Swaffer's short speech below (all speeches were shortened significantly, due to the session that day running over time).