BENGALURU:Combining great music and great cause is what Bengalureans will get to witness this year at the third edition of Swaraanubhuthi - a charitable musical event that supports palliative care for patients with life-limiting chronic illnesses.Organised by Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) and supported by The New Indian Express, this year’s event will have playback singers SP Balasubramanyam and MD Pallavi performing at Chowdiah Memorial Hall on March 4.
Currently in its third edition, the event’s proceedings will go to caring for patients needing palliative care. Talking about the initiative, Ramkrishna Mudre, the director of the palliative care programme at SVYM, says that the aim is to create the right kind of ambience for patients suffering from a life-limiting illness, such as cancer, last stages of HIV, renal failure, paralysis, alzheimer’s, celebral palsy and others.
“Palliative care is quite new in India, it’s only been around for about 30-40, and is prevalent more in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as these states have policies in place for this specifically. Earlier, care for these kind of patients was given within the family - be it emotional or physical. Now families have disintegrated, and palliative care was pushed to the background,” he says.
Palliative care is driven by kinship in the community, he adds. “Through the event, we hope to ensure the five components of palliative care to those in need - urban or rural. These five components are: physical (where a doctor and nurse are provided), financial (whether the patient can take care of himself/herself), social (how society help the patient), psychological, and spiritual. The last one is about reassuring the patient that death is an imminent part of life, with death being seen as a natural process of life,” says Mudre.
The palliative care programme at SVYM was started in 2009-2010. Now, Mudre says, patients gone up over the years. It costs `15-16k for one patient per year, and patients within a 50-60km radius from Mysuru are brought in. SVYM has now tied up with Mysore Medical College to set up a special palliative care centre that can be used by 15 patients, and Mudre says that within a month, this centre will be up and running.
Talking about the event, Mudre says that the idea was create a platform where people can be told about palliative care and its importance, while also addressing everyone under one roof. “Palliative care is about the person and their needs, it’s not about the disease. The idea is create an ambience that ensures a peaceful exit for the person,” concludes Mudre.
The event is taking from from 5.30pm-9pm.
For further details on donations and tickets for the event,contact 080 26586934.