Christine Kukka, Publications Director
Christine Kukka joined NASHP as its publications director and editor of its weekly e-newsletter in August 2017. She has many years of experience writing about health care access, cost, and equity, starting when she worked as a news reporter covering the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Since then, she has written about health care for numerous government and nonprofit health care websites, including the Hepatitis B Foundation, the Hepatitis C Support Project, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Innovations Exchange. She has also researched and authored injection safety training materials for village doctors in China, a project funded by PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health). Her focus at NASHP is to make sure the state health policy innovations that NASHP staff research and write about are accessible to a broad audience of state leaders, lawmakers, journalists, and other stakeholders.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
