Enhancing psychosocial and spiritual palliative care: Four-year results of the program of comprehensive care for people with advanced illnesses and their families in Spain.

Objective: We aimed to describe the overall quantitative and qualitative results of a "La Caixa" Foundation and World Health Organization Collaborating Center Program entitled "Comprehensive Care for Patients with Advanced Illnesses and their Families" after four years of experience.

Method: Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to assess the program. Quasiexperimental, prospective, multicenter, single-group, and pretest/posttest methods were utilized to assess the quantitative data.

The WHO collaborating centre for public health palliative care programs: an innovative approach of palliative care development.

Background: The designation of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (Barcelona, Spain) as World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Public Health Palliative Care Programmes (WHOCC-ICO) in February 2008 turns the institution into the first ever center of international reference in regards to palliative care implementation from a public health perspective. The center aims to provide support to countries willing to develop palliative care programs, to identify models of success, to support WHO's policies, and to generate and spread evidence on palliative care.

Objective: This article describes the WHOCC-ICO's contribution in the implementation of public health palliative care programs and services.

The "La Caixa" Foundation and WHO Collaborating Center Spanish National Program for enhancing psychosocial and spiritual palliative care for patients with advanced diseases, and their families: preliminary findings.

Objective: The psycho-social needs of patients with advanced chronic illness and their families include emotional, spiritual, and bereavement care. With a funding initiative by the La Caixa Foundation and design by the WHO Collaborating Center, we developed and implemented a program for the comprehensive care of terminally-ill individuals and their families, in Spain. The intent was to improve the psycho-social and spiritual dimensions of care, to generate experience and evidence, to explore models, and to act as catalyst in the Spanish National Strategy for Palliative Care.