How we care for the dying is perhaps the most pressing personal, social and public health issue for many families today. Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families who are facing challenges associated with life-threatening illness, whether physical, psychological, social, or spiritual.
A partnership in a palliative care project sees Hospice Malta, the Church, the National Development and Social Fund (NDSF), and the EU collaborate to create St Michael Hospice, a new state-of-the-art palliative care complex in Santa Venera. Thanks to this project, palliative care in Malta has made a rapid and impressive development that would have been difficult to achieve without the commitment of various organisations to promote compassionate end-of-life care for those who need it.
According to the European Association for Palliative Care, each year, an estimated 4.4 million people in Europe, including 140,000 children, need palliative care. Now, St Michael Hospice will be able to provide free services to more than 1,500 patients in Malta. This is a remarkable development in how we care for the most vulnerable in our community.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna correctly argues: “These services are a profound expression of compassion, as they uphold and safeguard the dignity of the human person during one of life’s most sensitive and meaningful moments.” The involvement of the Church in such initiatives is a shining example of its commitment to the well-being of our fast-changing society.
The financial support of the NDSF and the EU was essential to ensure that the former Adelaide Cini Institute, owned by the Church, could be modernised to provide modern palliative care facilities, gardens and open spaces for patients. Now, Maltese patients can get these services not just in our hospitals but also in a more friendly environment for patients and their caregivers.
As people are living longer, the need for palliative care will continue to grow as the population ages and the incidence of non-communicable diseases continues to increase. The St Michael Hospice will reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and the use of health services that are already overstretched.
Malta’s membership of the EU continues to deliver benefits that may not have been envisaged when the country joined the union 20 years ago. The EU’s social agenda will help local NGOs tap into the financial resources of various union-wide programmes to promote social solidarity.
The St Michael Hospice project model can be emulated to address other pressing social needs in the community. The growing incidence of mental health illnesses is just one other area where the voluntary sector, the Church and the government can cooperate to provide outpatient care in the community for those most in need of mental health services.
The social-care needs of the country will never be fully addressed as our society is evolving fast. However, past successes in caring for the vulnerable in our community can encourage today’s societal leaders to work together to find new ways to address emerging social challenges.
The Dar tal-Providenza, Dar Merħba Bik Foundation, Richmond Foundation, and Caritas, among others, result from inspirational philanthropist leaders who transformed how we treat the vulnerable compassionately.
While many often take a rather pessimistic view of how we treat each other, it is encouraging to note that, frequently, people unite when they identify initiatives that add value to the community. The money collected in fundraising marathons for charities is tangible proof that social solidarity is still a significant social value for many.
Ultimately, we all have a role in making our society more caring for the weakest among us.