Who We Are

The Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN) is dedicated to promoting hospice and palliative care in Asia and the Pacific. Our purpose is to empower and support organisations and individuals committed to alleviating suffering from life-threatening illness.

The Network promotes education and skills development, enhances awareness and communication, and fosters research and collaboration. We encourage established programmes to assist less experienced and more isolated colleagues.

Mission

To be an effective network in Asia Pacific that promotes and supports the alleviation of pain and suffering from life-limiting illnesses.

Vision

To promote access to quality hospice and palliative care for all in the Asia Pacific region.

Goals

Reach out to more communities in need of palliative care. Build sustainable capabilities for service development, advocacy, education and research.

Values

  • respect every individual, regardless of sex, age, race, intellectual or socio-economic standing.
  • value every moment of life and will not support any action that has the intention of shortening a person’s life.
  • recognise that the individual and the family are entitled to make informed decisions about care.
  • respect the confidentiality of all information arising out of the provision of care.
  • believe in the empowerment of the individual, the family and the community.
  • respect the faith, belief system and culture of each individual.
  • respect the rule of law and will work within the law of each sector.

Objectives

  • We facilitate the development of hospice and palliative care programs (both service providers and umbrella bodies) and other relevant initiatives.
  • We promote professional and public education in palliative care.
  • We enhance communication and dissemination of information.
  • We foster research and collaborative activities.
  • We encourage co-operation with local, regional and international professional and public organisations.

Our Sectors

A sector is a geographic region which may include one or more countries, or part of a country.

In 2001, APHN started with 14 founding sectors: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Founding sectors will be permanent sectors of the association.

On the 15th October 2015, a resolution was passed by the 15th APHN Council to accept Mongolia as the 15th Sector of the APHN. This was a new milestone for us as Mongolia was the first Sector to join the APHN since 2001.

In 2019, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka joined APHN as Sectors, bringing our total number of Sectors to 18.

More Sectors will be invited to join the APHN in the future as hospice palliative care services are established in other Asia Pacific regions.

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Australia

Mongolia

New Zealand

Japan

Korea

Philippines

Taiwan

Vietnam

Thailand

Indonesia

Singapore

Sri Lanka

India

Nepal

Bangladesh

Myanmar

Malaysia

Hong Kong

Our Logo

A stalk and a head of green rice grains bent into a circle. Rice is the staple grain in the region.  There are many grains coming from this one green stalk, just as there are many hospice and palliative care programs emerging in Asia and the Pacific. The grains are green rather than gold.  This is the colour of vitality and growth.  But in the future the grains will ripen to become seed for new growth and development. The circle represents the cycle of life.  The circle is broken just as the lives of our palliative care patients are broken.

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