The Patients Assistance League Service (PALS) will now have a presence around the homecare world after taking part in the first world-wide homecare conference.

For the first time the World Homecare and Hospice Organisation and the National Association of Homecare, met in Boston last month where hospice representatives from 53 countries around the world including Bermuda met to discuss their field.

President of the Patients Assistance League (PALS) Ann Smith Gordon who attended the conference said "it put Bermuda on the world homecare map.'' The idea behind the World Homecare and Hospice Organisation (WHOO) -- which was created in Bermuda in 1993 -- is to get information around the world and try to improve the standard of home care around the world.

It is a dynamic network of global leaders and organisations dedicated to the interests of all patients, providers, home care associations, public and private sector agencies, hospices and personal services practitioners.

Responding to a worldwide need, key leaders in homecare and hospice came together to formulate and advance the concept of an international clearinghouse as a forum for communication, business development, as well as information and technology sharing. Mrs. Smith Gordon, who is also the vice-chairman of the organisation, added that WHOO and the National Association of Homecare convened in Boston in October for the first ever world congress.

"Fifty-three countries were there and thousands of health care providers.

There were several terrific things that happened,'' Mrs. Smith Gordon said.

She added: "I was invited to give a presentation on the effective use of volunteers and what we do. And I also took part in a roundtable discussion.

"This means for PALS that we are having a presence around the homecare world and also we can get an insight to what is happening around the world, it helps us to know that we are on the right track.

"We have been featured twice in the International Issues of Caring magazine published by the National Association for Homecare. That is exciting because it goes all over the US and to these 53 countries.'' Mrs. Smith Gordon also said PALS has grown as an organisation. "One nurse has 30 patients and a couple of others have 28 and 29. It just seems everyday you hear about someone else you know that has been diagnosed with cancer yet the statistics in Bermuda show that our incidents of cancer is about par with that of the US and UK.'' She added that Bermuda is also featured in the Hospice Care on the International Scene written by Dame Cicely Sanders and Robert Kastenbaum.

"The authors sent out about 200 questionnaires to hospices organisations around the world and of that they had 116 replies, of the 116, 21 were chosen for a chapter in this book about how we have grown since the beginning and managed to cope.

"PALS has changed because cancer patience are living longer and are sicker for longer and are requiring care for longer so therefore it is costing more, even though the increase of cancer is not dramatically higher there is more demands on our services because the patients are living longer.

"So what we want to emphasise at PALS is living with cancer and living life as full as possible.'' Mrs. Smith Gordon also said that currently nine million people around the world have developed cancer, by 2015 this figure is expected to rise to 15 billion.

"PALS is not a true hospice. A true hospice is when a terminally ill patient is not admitted to the programme unless there is a life expectancy of six months to a year.

"At PALS, anyone in any stage of the disease will receive help if they need it.'' WORLD-WIDE RECOGNITION -- PALS president Ann Smith Gordon presents the Bermuda Library with the book Hospice Care on the International Scene written by Dame Cicely Saunders and Robert Kastenbaum, in which PALS and Bermuda have a chapter. Pictured from left is Mrs. Smith Gordon, Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Yvette Swan and librarian Grace Rawlins.

LIBRARY LIB