‘Give me a cloak’, returns Vidas campaign for palliative care

On the occasion of the National Day of Palliative Care which occurs on 11 November, Vidas re-proposes the awareness initiative that has a musical hashtag: #datemiunmantello. The cloak evokes protection, security, but also a more or less temporary sense of ‘being a community’ in the name of receiving and offering help, assistance and warmth: being all together under the cloak means being there, being in the here and now of space and weather. There are many protagonists of the Vidas awareness campaign who wear a cloak to make visible the sharing of suffering, the care with sensitivity and sweetness of the incurable patients who have the right to spend the last part of their life in the best possible way. The home is the privileged place for Palliative Care assistance, because it guarantees the patient to continue living among their memories without being deprived of the continuous and professional care offered free of charge. Multidisciplinary teams made up of professionals skilled in palliative care – doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, hygiene workers, physiotherapists, educators, dietician, occupational therapist, speech therapist, pharmacists, integrated by selected volunteers -, enter into direct relationship with the patient and they become part of his family unit: in fact, they are transformed into members of an extended family that accompanies, relieves, creates an atmosphere of love and affection. It is essential to exercise empathy, to ensure an intimate communication channel that makes the therapeutic path more effective.For Vidas, body language and touch (caress, hug), as well as the ability to listen to the patient’s needs and loved ones are an integral part of therapy. The allegory of the cloak becomes even more fitting if we think of its etymology, pallium, which underlies the term ‘palliative’. To testify the great commitment of the association founded in 1982, another ‘community’ was created, made up of people from very different backgrounds, united by the same spirit of solidarity and love for Paolo Battaglia, born in 1963, architect and her husband Antonio , who passed away at the beginning of the year. A family unit that has forged a deep and emotional bond with Vidas. So the brand advisor alternates with the doctor, the fashion designer with the lawyer, the ‘gentle tattooist’ with the artist, the stylist with the entrepreneur, the creative director with the medical director: they are the members of a new ‘family’ and they accepted with the joy of being portrayed by the photographers Pasquale Abbattista and Alvaro Beamud Cortes wearing a cloak designed for the event. Their photos are intended as an invitation to follow their example, even in the world of social networks where on the occasion of 11 November, National Day of Palliative Care, photos and videos with the red Vidas ‘cloak’ will be shared. The campaign hashtag #datemiunmantello will spread the message ‘why I join the Vidas campaign and what it means to me to take care of someone’.