Palliative care

The IMAI palliative care tools were amongst the first developed by the WHO IMAI, spurred by the need to provide HIV care prior to the availability of antiretroviral therapy.

From the start, the tools were developed to address symptom management in any client as well as end-of-life care. Palliative care is not limited to terminal illness and is important in managing symptoms in all acute and chronic illnesses. 

The IMAI palliative care tools support 3 levels of delivery of palliative care with consistent guidelines and coordination between levels of care: 

• A Caregiver Booklet to support home-based care by the family and/or community caregivers (Caregiver Booklet); 

• health centre Palliative Care guideline module- both delivered by the health worker and through their supervision and back up to home-based care 

• the palliative guidelines within the WHO IMAI District Clinician Manual (Section 20 in Volume 2 as well as the instructions for medicines in Section 8 in Volume 1 ).  

In the District Clinician Manual, there are sections on special considerations in palliative care for patients with HIV, TB, COPD and cancer. 

In the SEARO IMAI District Clinician Manual, the palliative care guidelines were updated and expanded to address special considerations in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. These appear in Section 3 in Volume 1 and Section 12 in Volume 2.