Stephen Connor

Stephen Robert Connor (born 29 December 1950) is an American licensed clinical health psychologist, researcher, author, executive and palliative care consultant. He is the executive director of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), formerly called the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). From 1998 to 2008 he served as Vice President of Research and Development at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). He has promoted global initiatives for hospice and end-of-life care programs through the World Health Assembly. He has also addressed the UN General Assembly on the need for greater pain management in palliative care.

Career

Connor worked as CEO of four US hospice programs from 1976 to 1998. As of 2016 he has served on the board of directors for the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation.

As a member of WHPCA, Connor edited a joint publication with the World Health Organization (WHO) entitled Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life (2014). Connor asserts that the World Health Assembly's 2014 resolution entitled "Strengthening Palliative Care as a component of Comprehensive Care Throughout the Life Course" is undermined by the pernicious lack of access to analgesics and medical opioids in some countries where stronger technical assistance and public education programs should be required.

To emphasize the growing need for palliative care, Connor has highlighted the fact that globally as of 2015 there are more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 5. Connor has also stressed that global healthcare's greatest problem is the almost exclusive attention given to acute care rather than chronic care of patients.

Works Hospice: Practice, Pitfalls, and Promise (1998) Hospice and Palliative Care, the Essential Guide (2009) [third edition, 2017] Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life (2014) Building Integrated Palliative Care Programs and Services (2017)