Outreach Scout Foundation (OSF) – a local non-governmental organization in Malawi – has challenged healthcare workers and community leaders to collaborate in championing palliative care as one way of reducing hospitalizations for patients and cutting costs on healthcare services.

OSF Executive Director Amon Lukhele made the remarks on Saturday during an orientation for palliative care volunteers from Kadzanja Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimutu in Lilongwe.

Lukhele also emphasized the need for increased investment in palliative care systems, stressing that this is critical in mitigating pain on patients and families while, at the same time, protecting them from suffering financial hardship due to prolonged illness.

“Palliative care is a crucial discipline that alleviates suffering and enhances the quality of life for patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families. However, there is gap globally between the need for and availability of these services,” he said.

He challenged the government and its stakeholders to ensure collaborative and innovative approaches to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of palliative care in Malawi, especially in underserved rural communities. 

Lukhele disclosed that with financial support from The True Colours Trust, his organization is implementing a project aimed at finding ways of improving and enhancing palliative care systems at the community level.

The pilot project is being implemented in Lilongwe.

“We are looking at how to reach out to the patients who are suffering from life-threatening illnesses. These are the people who are very vulnerable. So we are equipping community structures like the village development committees, community health workers and the mother care groups and other cadres that are working with communities with skills on how they can provide the best palliative care services to the sick,” he explained.

Environmental Health Officer at Blessings Hospital at Lumbadzi, Chifundo Kalindawalo, described the intervention as timely, saying it will help them in providing the patients with holistic care.

Kalindawalo added that palliative care will help patients manage their physical symptoms and emotional stressors.

“So if we’re looking at human health, we have to go with the holistic approach, where we have to look to take a patient as a whole. So looking at all dimensions of life, how you transition from this life to the point of death, you have to get prepared, and you have to be in a state of acceptance,” he said.

“So it is very important, in the sense that the community will get to accept when things have reached to the point where somebody has reached the end of his or her life,” he added.

A representative of the volunteers, Enifer Mcnoil, highlighted mobility challenges as one of the hindrances to their work.

Mcnoil asked OSF to consider assisting them with bicycles to address this problem.

Lukhele assured the volunteers that the organization will look into their request.