 |
President's
message
2007
|
By
Lukas
Radbruch, President EAPC -2007-2011
Welcome
message from the new President
|
Dear
member,
The 10th
Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care
in June 2007 in Budapest has been a great success. More than
2000 participants have discussed
issues from symptom control to ethical decision making. The
congress has been the first EAPC-congress held in a Central
or Eastern European country. The high quality of the scientific
programme, but also the enjoyable setting and the splendid
organisation of the local organizing committee from the Hungarian
Palliative Care Association ensured that the congress participants
were thoroughly pleased not only with the congress, but also
with Budapest and Hungary. The list of participants has shown
the ongoing development of palliative care in developing as
well as developed countries. However, the presentations at
the congress pointed out how much there is still to do in
many countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
Those of our members and readers who had not the chance to
attend the congress can soon find a report and a lot of follow
up information clicking here.
In Budapest the new Board
of Directors has started its term following
the elections at the General Assembly of EAPC on the 8th June
2007. Board members for the term 2007 to 2011 are Michaela
Bercovitch, Augusto Caraceni, Tine De Vlieger, Pam Firth,
Katalin Hegedus, Maria Nabal, Silvio Necchi, Sheila Payne,
Lukas Radbruch, André Rhebergen, Esther Schmidlin,
Per Sjøgren, Carol Tishelman and Chantal Wood.
The first meeting of the new board has given me the honor
to be elected as new President of EAPC. I would like to start
work with a big thank you to the board members who stood down
from the board, having completed their term: Carlos
Centeno, Marilene Filbert, Lucille Hacpille, Stein Kaasa,
Phil Larkin and Francoise Porchet. They have dedicated
time and energy to EAPC, and without their ongoing commitment
and enthusiasm many projects of EAPC would not have been possible.
Special thanks belong to Stein Kaasa and Marilene Filbet,
who worked as presidents of EAPC relentlessly for the last
8 years. It seems a great challenge for me to take on the
presidency following these leaders in the field! More information
on the results of work of the last years can be found at http://www.eapcnet.org/membersonly/genass.asp
and the whole EAPC web.
At the Budapest congress the EAPC in collaboration with the
International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care
(IAHPC) and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA)
has initiated a new campaign on political advocacy: the Budapest
Commitments. This is a collaborative programme collecting
and supporting the national palliative care associations to
define national goals for hospice and palliative care development
for the next two years. Many of these national goals will
be based on deficits and weaknesses described in the Atlas
of Palliative Care that has been published by the EAPC Task
Force on Development of Palliative Care in Europe chaired
by Carlos Centeno.
Please visit our website regularly, as it is updated frequently.
I would like to invite you to participate in the work of EAPC,
communicating with other experts in the field at the EAPC
congresses, but also more closely in the projects and task
forces of EAPC. The association thrives by the energy of its
members, and the great success of EAPC is the result of the
ongoing commitment of its members.
Lukas Radbruch
EAPC President
|
