CAPACITY BUILDING

PCAU aims to Integrate palliative care services in every district of Uganda by focusing on training, mentorship and support supervision of palliative care service providers. By the time Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) was formed in 1999, there was a big gap in terms of knowledge about palliative care. There was very little provision of the service in health facilities as well as a shortage of human resource and medications needed for delivery of palliative care. PCAU came in to partner with the Ministry of Health to improve the availability and quality of service.  It created a database of all health workers trained in palliative care across the country and scaled up training of health workers in palliative care. The association has grown to 22 member organizations mainly involved in doing palliative care work. In addition, palliative care has been integrated into public health care services, with 251 health facilities accredited to stock and prescribe morphine, a critical medication for pain control.