Palliative is about love first of all
We do not know how to talk about death. We do not know how to support those who have encountered it. Ultimately, we are afraid to admit that death is something that happens to everyone and pretend that live as if we will never die. Despite the fact that the theme of death is terribly tabooed, it is also full of stereotypes. Thinking of people finally incurable by medicine, we usually think only of pain, suffering and pity and very rarely realize that these are also stories about respect, strength, love for life.
Living with a palliative diagnosis means that a person is very clearly aware of his "deadlines", life becomes very concentrated, there is no time for excess, on hesitation, on procrastination, on postponement for later.
According to the classification of the International Palliative Care Alliance, which operates under WHO, Ukraine belongs to the group of countries with "unsystematic provision of palliative care". Armenia, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia and several dozen other countries have the same status. Every year there are more than 600,000 people in Ukraine who need palliative care. Of these, more than 200,000 are children. Only 15% of patients of their total number can receive high-quality palliative care.
At Arts&Rights, we took the topic of palliative medicine to create a high-quality advocacy campaign and powerful documentaries on this topic. To show that you can not silence the topic of death, and with a palliative diagnosis, you can not only die, but also living.
In 2020, at the 14th pitching of the State Film Agency, we received support for theproductionof a documentary, "Not a Terrible Film" about life with a palliative diagnosis. This is a film about a family that proves that life next to a deadly disease can be complete, and a person is always more than her diagnosis.
The mission of the film is to make visible people with palliative diagnoses, to share their life experiences, which will help each of us to realize the value of life.
As a result of the implementation of palliative medicine projects, Arts&Rights will develop a series of socially important cases - a course on palliative care, a line of psychological assistance for palliative patients, cooperation with hospitals to improve navigation within hospitals.
The advocacy campaign should help palliative care patients be heard by both medical professionals and government officials to make our whole medical system more humane to the patient.
