Palliative Care Takes DC for Lobby Day 2015
On July 22, 2015, over 65 patients, caregivers, social workers, chaplains, nurses, doctors, researchers and other stakeholders descended upon Washington D.C. to participate in the Patient Quality of Life Coalition’s (PQLC) second annual Lobby Day.
The goal of the day was to educate legislators and their staff about palliative care and the brand new Palliative Care and Hospice Education Training Act (H.R. 3119). If passed, the act would establish palliative care workforce training programs for doctors, nurses and other health professionals to help deal with the serious workforce shortage the field is facing; establish a national palliative care education and awareness campaign so that both patients and providers know that palliative care is an option for them; and direct the NIH to conduct more research that addresses quality of care and quality of life for patients with serious illness.
Lobby Day 2015 was the result of months of effort from the Patient Quality of Life Coalition, Advocacy Smiths, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS-CAN) and other coalition members who helped organize the complicated logistics of the day. Below are a few photos and tweets from the day.
