%0 Journal Article
%T Palliative Care in the United Arab Emirates, a Desperate Need
%A Humaid O Al-Shamsi
%A Mona Tareen
%J International Journal of Palliative Care | Open Access Journal of Palliative Medicine
%D 2018
%R 10.15226/2374-8362/5/3/00161
%X The enormous burden of life-threatening illnesses including cancer is associated with physical and psychosocial suffering explains the illustrious and desperate need for palliative care in developing countries. Despite the demonstrated and proven benefit of palliative care in developed countries , current provision of effective and well structured palliative care in developing countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at best very limited. Access to essential pain medicines in developing countries, particularly oral opioids, for pain control is extremely limited and far below the global mean. Cancer patients in the UAE are having major difficulties in accessing palliative care services due to the limited palliative care facilities and trained physicians and other palliative health support workers in this field. There is a general lack of government policies that recognize palliative care as an essential component of the current health care system and there is inadequate training for both health care providers and the general public about palliative care. We recommend establishing palliative care program within a public health strategy as part of a national cancer control plan, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which offers the best approach for translating knowledge and skills into evidenceŠ\based, cost-effective interventions that can reach everyone in need of palliative care in the UAE. Keywords: Palliative Care; Health Research; Policy; Cancer; Barriers; Communications; Developing countrie
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