Words of welcome

Dear Colleagues, dear Friends; It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 18th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in Rotterdam. This 2023 congress is the first face-to-face congress organized by the EAPC since 2019. Like other EAPC congresses, this congress is the result of two years of planning, organisation, meetings, reflection, and decision-making. Finally, here we are! It has been my honour to co-chair the Scientific Committee of this congress together with my colleague Agnes Csikos. For the first time, as far as I remember, the Scientific Committee, composed of a dedicated group of colleagues (thank you Alberto Alonso, Augusto Caraceni, Fin Craig, Jeroen Hasselaar, Martin Loucka, Wendy Oldenmenger, Christoph Ostgathe, Danai Papadatou, Nancy Preston, Audrey Roulston, and Rainer Simader), was co-chaired by two women who have the particularity of living in the South and Eastern parts of Europe.
Under the theme “Equity and Diversity in Palliative Care”, the EAPC 2023 congress focuses on understanding health inequities and diversity in palliative care. Through a rich and diversified program, this congress draws attention to the utmost need and goal of creating equity of fair access, opportunity, and advancement in palliative care for all people in need of this care, within a context of diversity. We will have the opportunity to reflect on ways to better understand why and how inequities in palliative care occur, develop strategies aimed at reducing those inequities, and identify which challenges and policies could help to improve equity in palliative care. That is why, determining the prominent factors in the production of inequities in palliative care and deciding which ones are most amenable to change is paramount. As an operational definition of equity in palliative care, we adapted the definition proposed by the International Society for Equity in Health. Equity in palliative care is the absence of systematic and potentially remediable differences in one or more aspects of palliative care outcomes across socially, demographically, or geographically defined population groups. There is no basis for expecting a single characteristic or set of characteristics to be most influential in causing inequities in palliative care. Evidence suggests otherwise. To complement the understanding of health inequities in palliative care, we need to take diversity in palliative care into account. The definition of diversity encompasses variety and the condition of being different or having differences. Rarely are diverse influences simultaneously explored in the literature to better understand and tackle plausible explanations for inequities in palliative care. Sometimes, diversity is used as a euphemism for “outside the majority” or “different from the dominant group”. Yet, as human beings, diversity is part of who we are. We are inherently diverse, and evidence shows that when reflecting on and discussing palliative care, there is no “one size fits all”. Are we promoting equity in palliative care? If not, why are we failing on equity in palliative care? Do we spend inadequately or inappropriately on palliative care provision? Why in a world now much more aware of the impact of the social determinants of health are the world’s most vulnerable persons still missing out? Why are we still failing in providing increased or augmented palliative care services for socially, demographically, or geographically defined population groups with greater palliative care needs? How can diversity help to understand and tackle inequities in palliative care? These are just a few examples of questions that will certainly become “food for thought” during our days together in Rotterdam. And, we are so grateful to all and each one of you for your contributions to the scientific programme. The 18th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care gives us the opportunity to reconnect and share all the exiting work that is being developed within our worldwide palliative care community. These days together offer us the amazing chance to meet colleagues and friends, to be inspired and inspire others, and to re-energise ourselves to face the future challenges for palliative care.Promoting equity and taking diversity into account is not only the theme of the 18th World Congress of the EAPC. They should also be at the heart of palliative care practice, organisation, research, education, advocacy, and policy. I wish you a wonderful and exciting congress and look forward to meeting you in Rotterdam.