This month’s profile

Divyae Katiyar Assistant Manager Ganga Prem Hospice

Divyae registering patients at a cancer clinic

Divyae works with Ganga Prem Hospice as its Rishikesh based administration spearhead. As assistant manger, Divyae handles coordination work between the management and medical team, as well as all Rishikesh related administrative work.

"I am happy living in Rishikesh and would not want to go anywhere else," says Divyae, who is patient and soft-spoken. These qualities make it easy for everyone in the team to work with him.

Having worked with telecommunication companies before joining Ganga Prem Hospice, Divyae feels at home with software and computer work. As various aspects of the Hospice cancer care expand, he also has to shoulder the responsibility of handling work related to patients' medical treatment such as applying for government grants and organizing hospital visits. Divyae also handles coordination of the Hospice construction work, which is in its preparatory stages at the moment. "When I joined Ganga Prem, I did not expect the communication and coordination to be so good within a small organisation, but I liked what I saw here," says the thirty-two year old.

Divyae lives with his wife and little daughter. His parents live nearby. Being the eldest son in the family, Divyae opted to come back to Rishikesh to live close to his parents as one of his younger brothers is working away while the other is still pursuing his studies.

Ganga Prem Hospice team
Our team includes patients, families, friends, medical professionals, nurses, social workers, volunteers, spiritual advisors and our support team.

Our team is gradually growing but, as we are still a small team and do not have all the staff that we will need in the future, most of our members work in more than one capacity. The main categories of the team are as follows:

1. The patient and his family and friends
An important theme of palliative medicine is that the patient is the focus of care. At Ganga Prem Hospice the patients are, therefore, given repeated opportunities to actively participate in team decision-making. Not doing so can result in care plans that are inappropriate and less likely to answer the patient’s needs. For the same reason the patient’s family and friends are also important members of the team.

2. Medical professionals
The professional palliative care team at the in patient facility of Ganga Prem Hospice will include cancer specialists, general practitioners or regional medical officers, non-allopathic specialists and therapists who will be full time or part time workers associated with the hospice.

The cancer specialists are in overall charge of the hospice and address medical as well as administrative issues. Other medical and secretarial staff will form part of their team.

a) The Medical Director of Ganga Prem Hospice:

Dr A.K. Dewan, M.S. M.Ch. (surgical oncology)

Other cancer specialists: Dr D.C. Doval, Dr A. Goil
Other doctors: Dr (Mrs) Rupali Dewan (gynaecology)

b) The general practitioners or resident medical officers residing in nearby villages or districts can visit regularly. They can be trained in palliative care programmes.

Dr Rajesh Saxena (gynaecologist)

Dr Rajesh Saxena

c) Non allopathic specialists from ayurvedic, homeopathic and other CAM therapies will provide holistic care to patients.

Renu Gulati (ayurveda)
Dr JP Rathi (ayurveda)

Renu Gulati	Dr JP Rathi

d) Other specialists from therapeutic systems like physiotherapy, yoga and nutrition will pay regular visits.

3. Nurses
Nurses will be trained in palliative care to patients. Their most important functions are:

a) Assessment of needs
b) General nursing care, including dressing, pressure area care, bowel care, venupuncture and administration of drugs

Mrs Sicily Kutti Sebastion

Mrs Sebastion

4. Social workers and volunteers
Social workers and volunteers include emotional support groups who mobilize resources and may organize equipment like mattresses, wheelchairs, commodes and back rests etc. They will maintain liaison with the patient’s family members and medical professionals. They will also provide a counselling service for patients and families. Other functions of volunteers can include befriending patients and taking them for outings, etc.

Sarojini Murthy
Gita Kukreti
Kamala Bhasin
Shashi Rana
Panshula Rai

Sarojini Murthy	Gita Kukreti	Kamala Bhasin

Shashi Rana	Panshula Rai

5. Spiritual advisors
The spiritual advisors in the hospice are there to strengthen or even sometimes to awaken the patient’s faith in a Supreme Power who can help him when human help will inevitably fail. Those who already have faith in the Divine need help and encouragement in their traditional prayers and practices while meditation and contemplation can also help those whose minds are trying to understand the enigma of death and the possibility of a framework of Being beyond the universe we perceive with our outer senses. Whatever the religion or belief of the patient may be, the spiritual staff always offer respect and reassure the patient in that belief. The staff act as sensitive and caring friends to the patients and their relatives and as such offer them unreserved love and companionship in the delicate field of their spiritual faith. As spirituality brings inner security and peace to the patient, it enables him to accept physical suffering and death with the minimum of emotional and mental disturbance. It is therefore a very important part of palliative care and the presence of spiritual staff in a hospice is essential.

Swamini Pramananda
Nani Ma

Mr Raghuvira Ghai - trustee
Mr Suresh Kathpalia - accountant
Mr Anil Gupta - honorary administrative coordinator
Mr Divyae Katiyar - assistant manager
Mr Yogeshwar Prasad Barathwal - administrative assistant

Mr Ghai	Suresh Kathpalia	Anil Gupta

Divyae Katiyar	Yogeshwar Prasad

7. Secretarial and public relations
The secretarial and public relations staff look after the files and records of the Trust work, coordination of the team’s activities, public relations and fundraising.

Pooja Dogra - secretarial and public relations
Steven Lopresti - administrative volunteer

Pooja Dogra	Steven Lopresti

8. General staff
Sebastion Thomas - ambulance driver
Jamuna - part time aaya and masseuse

Sebastion Thomas	Jamuna

9. Support team
The support team includes those working in the fields of publicity and fund raising.

a) Rishikesh and Uttarakhand

Alan Neachell - graphic design
Anjana Dharnidarka - web site manager
Michael and Pallavi Duffy - design of publicity and fund raising materials

Alan Neachell

b) Other cities in India

Anjan and Kajal Panigrahi - Bangalore - resource mobilization (medicines)
Anuj Gupta - Delhi - electronic media and general support
Meena Davur - Delhi - general support and fundraising
Mridul Dewan - Delhi - general support
Neeraj Dang - Delhi - electronic newsletter design
Raj Rani - Delhi - general support
Shailendra Arora - Delhi - electronic media and general support

Meena Davur	Anuj Gupta	Neeraj Dang

10. Worldwide volunteer team
The world wide volunteer team includes many friends and well wishers who help out in the fields of publicity and fund raising when ever they are able.

Pranava Bienenstein - web site design

Bhavani-Maria Annibal, Bharata-Peter Vestergaard, Corinne Burgalière, Duncan Huilin, Gabrielle Steen, Kaili Blacklock-Hind, Jonquil Cooper, Maddalena Fortunati, Maggie McKeen, Manuela Toso, Mason Bennett, Nora Monticelli, Roberta Trussi, Ruth Fellner, Solveig McIntosh, Todd Sykes.

Pranava Bienenstein