Home-Based Palliative Care services are critical in the continuum of care, particularly in resource-poor settings, and can mitigate the burden of disease on health facilities and families. The advantages of providing care in the family setting are many:

• Good basic care in the home enables the sick person to be as active and productive as possible.
• The very sick and the dying often prefer to be at home.
• Sick people are comforted by having their family and friends around them.
• Pain can be controlled with the use of oral morphine.
• Family members may be able to carry out their duties more easily if they are not required to make frequent hospital visits or prepare meals for the admitted relative.
• Home care is usually less expensive for the family.
• Hospital care is often not an option, or not an advisable one.
• Home care offers opportunities for educating families and communities about HIV and AIDS prevention and can reduce the associated stigma and discrimination.

Palliative Care service provision in PASADA has a pyramid structure, with the main supervisory team at the top. This team supervises the trained nurses operating in 14 outreach sites. Each nurse works closely with a group of trained HBC volunteers in the specific geographical area. The volunteers identify people in need of palliative care at community level and refer them appropriately. They also support the outreach nurses by giving them feedback on the situation of the client and the family members. Many more people are reached through the participation of these volunteers.