October 5, 2012
In 2009, the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa published the book Legal Aspects of Palliative Care. This book has now been updated with new case studies, more resources, templates for drafting a will and training exercises.Palliative care aims to improve quality of life, but legal problems may trouble patients. Problems include who will care for the children after parent’s death, who inherits the family home, how to access pain medication, falling into debt and struggling to secure social benefits, grappling with discrimination and violence, and struggling to navigate application procedures for identity documents and death certificates.
The second edition of this book has been published by the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa in collaboration with the Open Society Foundations. It now not only includes case studies, legal recommendations and resources, but has been restructured as a training manual with step by step lessons for hospice and palliative care staff and legal practitioners.
To learn more about this resource and how it contributes to the access to justice for the palliative care patients and their families, please see http://www.soros.org/voices/start-new-movement-access-justice-palliative-care-patients.