National Palliative Care Week (NPCW), held from 19-25 May 2024, is Australia’s largest annual awareness raising initiative held increase understanding of the many benefits of palliative care.

During this week PCNSW will be showing support for the incredible work of palliative care nurses, doctors, allied health workers, carers and volunteers across NSW.

Palliative care is person and family-centred care provided for a person with an active, progressive, advanced disease, who has little or no prospect of cure and who is expected to die, and for whom the primary goal is to optimise the quality of life.

For help and information ask your:

• Doctor
• Aboriginal Health Worker
• Hospital Liaison Officer
• Nurse

Get involved this May by:

• Raising Awareness on social media.
• Getting a conversation going in the community
• Volunteering with the foundation
• Donating

For more information, visit: https://palliativecare.org.au/

International Nurses Day (IND) is celebrated on 12 May each year and a theme is chosen by ICN – a federation of more than 130 national nursing associations around the world, representing the over 28 million nurses working worldwide.

The economic power of care which creates healthy people and societies and drives healthy economies, will be highlighted by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) on International Nurses’ Day (IND) 2024 under the theme: Our Nurses. Our Future. The economic power of care.

Get involved by:

• Making a donation
• Showing your appreciation to the nurses in your local community
• Volunteering
• Raising awareness on social media

For more information ,visit:https://www.icn.ch/news/international-nurses-day-2024-theme-announced-our-nurses-our-future-economic-power-care

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years.

Every day, more than 5 million people worldwide struggle with the often debilitating health consequences of lupus, a potentially fatal autoimmune disease . Lupus affects people in all parts of the world. While some groups of people develop lupus more frequently than others, lupus develops in people of all ages, races, ethnicities and genders.

Get involved by :

• Wear your favorite purple items on May 10 to raise awareness
• Join the global lupus community to share your lupus story on social media, and post images of our lupus facts along with sample messages located on this toolkit webpage. Use the hashtags #WorldLupusDay and #MakeLupusVisible
• Raise awareness on social media

For more information ,visit:https://worldlupusday.org/

The theme of the event this year is ”Empowering Lives, Embracing Progress: Equitable and Accessible Thalassaemia Treatment for All.”

With an estimated 100 million people worldwide carrying genes responsible for thalassaemia, and more than 300,000 babies born annually with severe forms of the disease, International Thalassaemia Day is a powerful call to raise awareness about this condition and its impact while celebrating the solidarity of the resilient thalassaemia community worldwide.

80% of these people live in low and middle-income countries and face many and multiple unmet needs and persisting challenges with regards to the health, social and other care they receive.

To get involved :

• Donate to the foundation
• Raise awareness on social media
• Host an event
• Volunteer

For more information,visit:https://thalassaemia.org.cy/itd2024/

This World Asthma Day, we’ll be talking about this year’s theme “Asthma Care For All”

Get involved :

• Raising awareness in family,friends and social media
• Volunteer
• Donate to the Foundation

For more information ,visit :https://asthma.org.au/about-asthma/

It is celebrated annually and each year draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world.

The date of 7 April marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948.

Around the world, the right to health of millions is increasingly coming under threat.

Conflicts are devastating lives, causing death, pain, hunger and psychological distress.

The burning of fossil fuels is simultaneously driving the climate crisis and taking away our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every 5 seconds.

The WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All has found that although at least 140 countries recognize health as a human right in their constitution, only 4 countries have mentioned how to finance it.

To address these types of challenges, the theme for World Health Day 2024 is ‘My health, my right’.

This year’s theme was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.

For more information ,visit: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2024/04/07/default-calendar/world-health-day-2024-my-health-my-right

Autism affects approximately 1 out of every 150 children around the world. It is a neural development disorder that affects their ability to socialize normally by impacting their abilities to utilize verbal and non-verbal communication. Since 2012, there has been a 30% increase in the amount of children being affected with autism, and World Autism Awareness Day helps to bring awareness to this growing health concern.

The history of autism begins in the early to mid 1900s when European psychiatrists began diagnosing the disorder, although at the time it was considered to be a form of schizophrenia. Doctors in Switzerland, Russia, Austria, and the United States were a few of the prominent people who made strides toward the understanding of autism as a disorder.

Autistic people do, nevertheless, still face discrimination and other challenges. As with all populations, autistic people have a wide range of talents and challenges that are often not recognized by the world they are born into .

Get Involved :

• Educating yourself and spreading awareness.
• Making a donation or purchasing merchandise to raise funds
• Volunteering or organising a fundraising campaign.

For more information ,visit https://www.un.org/en/observances/autism-day

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month, and Monday 11th April is World Parkinson’s Day.  During this month, Parkinson’s Australia is promoting the importance of identifying some of the lesser-known early warning signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s. 
Often people only associate Parkinson’s with a tremor of the hands, trouble moving or walking and loss of balance. 

What are some of the early signs?

• Tremor
• Handwriting can get noticeably smaller
• Loss of smell, known as hyposmia
• Change in the volume of your voice
• Persistent pain in many forms, such as muscle tightness, stiffness or a frozen shoulder 

Get involved with Rare Disease Day by:

• Spreading awareness on Social media,Friends and Family
• Making a donation
• Joining or hosting a local event

For more information, visit: https://www.parkinsons.org.au/parkinsons-awareness-month