Library dedicated to books on palliative care opened

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a first of its kind initiative, a library dedicated for books based on palliative care and treatment has been opened in the city. The Elisabeth Kubler Ross (EKR) Library was inaugurated by former chief secretary S M Vijayanand last week at the Arumana Hospital in West Fort here.
The library is named after Swiss-American author and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler Ross, whose books are based on the significance of providing proper care to terminally-ill patients.
While inaugurating the library, Vijayanand said that evaluation of palliative care activities in grass root-level was the need of the hour. “Almost all the panchayats have a family health centre, which also has a palliative unit as a part of it. But it is important to form a group of experts and examine the functioning of these palliative units in order to revitalize them. It is also equally important to provide palliative care right from the stage of diagnosis and it should be implemented at all primary, secondary and tertiary health care centres without fail,” he said.
‘On Death and Dying’, a book by Elisabeth Kuber Ross was handed over to S M Vijayanand by Pallium India founder Dr M R Rajagopal at the event.
“Around 40 books were donated to the library by Elisabeth’s son Kenn Ross. The library is opened with two aims - public awareness and professional education. It is very unfortunate that the young MBBS graduates learn everything but the ability to cure the pain. It is good to see that palliative care units have become part of the primary health centres in panchayats. But such units are yet to be set up in tertiary centres like medical college hospitals. It is high time the glaring gap is filled,” said Rajagopal.
“Having a facility like the library will really help to spread the word about palliative medicine and I believe that palliative care is the responsibility of everyone in the society. A library with free access will help to educate people about this,” said Lucy James, who is a medical student at the Warwick University in UK and currently doing an exchange programme with the Pallium India.