**17. Conclusion**

*Palliative Care*

opment include:

infections.

**14. Palliative care policies**

The World Health Organization recommends that all countries should adopt a national palliative care policy, ensure the training and education of health professionals, ensure the availability of morphine in all healthcare settings, and ensure standards for pain relief and palliative care are progressively adopted at all levels of care [6, 7]. Therefore, palliative care programme should be an integral part of the national healthcare system [HIV care and treatment]. The presence of appropriate policy helps to solve existing obstacle, access drugs, and facilitate for resource and funding. Public health approach is a key approach of national plan that can be

Policies can be generated from various levels of government and public and private institutions, such as medical and nursing schools, public and private healthcare facilities, and community-based organisations [6, 7]. Key actions for policy devel-

• Offering access to a wide range of medications for symptom and opportunistic

• Working with other stakeholders especially key governmental officials to promote policies and programmes to enhance access to pain and symptom control medications. Availability and prescribing opioids require strong policy support.

Palliative care training and education should be an integral part of nursing and medical schools. Educated healthcare providers can provide better palliative care. There should be also continuous professional development on the area of palliative care for caregivers. Its effectiveness for people living with HIV depends on the providers' skills and is only as good as the skills of its providers. Therefore, palliative care training and education helps its implementation in an effective way [9, 14]. The training programme of palliative care should address three areas: [1] attitudes,

The best training includes hands-on clinical experience under the supervision of a skilled professional who serves as a mentor and guides colleagues in every aspect of palliative care ranging from symptom management, especially pain control, to the art of listening. Healthcare professionals should get interdisciplinary training which also provides them an opportunity for establishing a team that helps them understand and respect each other. Training and education will avoid misconcep-

Drugs used for HIV pain and other symptom managements should be available and regulated by government policies. The drug list for palliative care in HIV is

established through home care and community support [3, 9].

• Training and developing capacity of healthcare providers.

• Identifying the role of healthcare providers.

• Establishing evidence-based programmes.

**15. Palliative care training and education**

**16. Presence of drugs for palliative care**

beliefs, and values, [2] knowledge base, and [3] skills [15].

tion about palliative care especially regarding pain management [9].

**132**

Palliative care is critically important for people living with HIV to lead better quality of life. It helps them manage pain and other symptoms, the complex drug treatments, and psychosocial impacts and helps the patients self-manage. Therefore, care providers need to be educated on palliative care and have favouring attitude to implement it. HIV is becoming a long-term health effect with many concerns. Therefore, people living with this condition need compressive palliative care to address psychosocial and spiritual concerns and improve quality of life. The courses designed for healthcare providers should consist of palliative care related to HIV, and training should be given for families and friends of people living with HIV for better support. There should be in place policy to enforce the implementation of palliative care for people living with HIV.
