After attending a workshop on community participation in palliative care held in Manjeri, Kerala, India, I came away feeling both exhilarated and confused. Exhilarated, for here was a community on the move, and confused, because palliative care was being described as basic care. The question that arose then, and continues to spin around in my head is, ‘What is palliative care?’ Is it specialty care delivered by a multidisciplinary team of professionals? Or is it basic care that anyone with some commitment and training can provide to the community in need? If it is a bit of both, then at what point does it cease to be one or the other? A spirited presentation at the workshop by the Neighbourhood Network in Palliative Care (NNPC) groups spearheading palliative care in the Northern part of Kerala, and a day’s visit out in the field with their volunteers still left me groping for answers.
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Harmala Gupta (2004) studied this question.