Palliative Care

Are You Making Decisions About Your Health Care In A Vacuum?

Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs | Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Aggressive Care, End of Life, Palliative Care, Death & Dying, End of Life Care, Religion News
Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs

Knowledge is power. There is no knowledge more important than to have knowledge about what all of your options are as you approach the end of your life or as you make decisions about life-changing conditions.

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Why Dying Is Different for Doctors

Richard C. Senelick, M.D. | Posted 05.11.2012

Read More: Death and Dying, Doctors, Physicians, Dying With Dignity, Palliative Care, Death, End of Life Decisions, Health Care Decisions, Death & Dying, Healthy Living News
Richard C. Senelick, M.D.

Because of our exposure to and understanding of how people die, physicians, at least in my experience, tend to deal with death differently than those outside of the profession.

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When Wishes Are Fishes

Barbara Coombs Lee | Posted 04.23.2012

Read More: Five Wishes, Advance Directive, James-Towey, Barbara Coombs Lee, Aging With Dignity, Healthy Living Health News, Palliative Care, Palliative Medicine, Healthy Living News
Barbara Coombs Lee

How do we get doctors to honor our wishes at the end of life? Most recommend preparing an advance directive, and I'm no exception. These documents are not infallible, but they are the best things we've got going for us when we can't speak for ourselves.

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Overtreatment in Cancer: Common Sense Medicine

David Casarett, M.D. | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Hospitals, Hospice, Medical Costs, Cancer, Palliative Care, Health Care Costs, Treatment for Cancer, Treatment of Cancer, Stage 4 Cancer, Cancer Treatment, Health Care, Healthy Living News
David Casarett, M.D.

ASCO's admonition to avoid ineffective treatment is unlikely to constrain the use of chemotherapy in advanced cancer significantly, because although it's good advice, it's difficult to put into practice.

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Elderly Murder-Suicide: Should We Praise Old Men Who Kill Their Wives and Themselves?

Elizabeth Marquardt | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Adrienne Snelling, Marriage, Depression, Dementia, Palliative Care, Murder-Suicide, Donna Cohen, Alzheimer's, Long-Term Care, Not Dead Yet, Charles Snelling, Domestic Violence, Crime News
Elizabeth Marquardt

A bizarre aspect of murder-suicide episodes is that reporters, commentators or the killers themselves speak of them as "loving" acts. When a husband kills his sick wife and then himself, he is said to act out of compassion or understandable desperation.

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It's Never Too Soon: Make Your Final Wishes Known

Glenn D. Braunstein, M.D. | Posted 04.28.2012

Read More: Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Dr. Glenn Braunstein, Cedars Sinai, Terminal Illness, Health Care, Death, Caregivers, Living Wills, Advanced Directive, Los Angeles News
Glenn D. Braunstein, M.D.

There is a spectrum in the process of dying. It ranges from unbearable suffering for patients and their families to a reasonable quality of life in which symptoms are controlled until the end. Either way, survivors are left to grieve.

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Coping with Terminal Illness: The Problem of Getting an Honest Prognosis

Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. | Posted 04.14.2012

Read More: Cancer, Palliative Care, Terminal Illness, End of Life Care, Death & Dying, Healthy Living News
Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D.

On the one hand, we may be able to sympathize with doctors' reluctance to be the bearers of bad news, including the reality of imminent death. On the other hand, there may be some real negative consequences that result from their reticence.

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The Death and Dying Series Part Three: Transforming the Culture of Death in America

Judith Johnson | Posted 04.10.2012

Read More: Funerals, Bereavement, Fear of Death, Cultural Transformation, Palliative Care, Grief, Burial, Memorial Services and Celebrations, Hospice, Cremation, Death, Death & Dying, Advance Health Care Directives, Healthy Living News
Judith Johnson

It may sound peculiar, but there are some very exciting things happening where death is concerned in America. The momentum of change in how we view and respond to death is building in many sectors of society as we transform our culture of death.

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The Health Benefits Of Volunteering As A Caregiver

Jeanne Dennis | Posted 01.24.2012

Read More: Hospice, Hospice Care, Volunteering, Bereavement, End of Life Care, Caregiving, Hospice Volunteering, Palliative Care, Hospice Care and Caregiving, Healthy Living News
Jeanne Dennis

I am sometimes asked if it is difficult to be a hospice volunteer, to get to know someone only to have them pass away. The short answer is no. It is rewarding, transformative and life-affirming.

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'Making Design Matter' -- New Uniforms for a Hospice Unit

Jeanne Dennis | Posted 01.08.2012

Read More: Hospice, Fashion, Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Special Care, Caregivers, Hospice Uniform Competition, Uniform Design, Uniform, Nurse Uniforms, Pratt-Institute, Fashion Design, Student Fashion Design, Style News
Jeanne Dennis

A competition to design new hospice uniforms is an opportunity to see how multi-faceted hospice care is on the broader scale, and how smaller details can make a difference in the end-of-life care patients receive.

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Catherine Pearson

When 'You Have Two Months To Live' Isn't Accurate

HuffingtonPost.com | Catherine Pearson | Posted 10.28.2011

Read More: Hospice, Video, Palliative Care, Cancer Prognoses, Healthy-Living-Health-News, Cancer Prognosis, Cancer, Healthy Living News

Dr. David Casarett, chief medical officer at Penn Wissahickon Hospice, says there are some conversations that even the most seasoned doctors dread -- ...

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The Ethics Of Hospice Care

Jeanne Dennis | Posted 10.01.2011

Read More: Hospice Investigation, Healthy Living Body, End of Life Care, Palliative Care, Hospice OIG, Hospice Care, Health Care, Hospice Ethics, Healthy Living News
Jeanne Dennis

Any industry that has regulations -- ours has plenty and rightly so -- will have people and institutions that flout those regulations.

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Thanks To Dr. Jack Kevorkian

Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs | Posted 08.17.2011

Read More: Hospice, Terminally Ill Patients, Life Goals, End of Life Care, Dying, PAD Laws, Palliative Care, End of Life, Suffering, Jack Kevorkian, Debilitating Illness, Physician Aid in Dying, Quality of Life, Death, Death & Dying, Healthy Living News
Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs

I believe that he should actually be thanked because Dr. Kevorkian raised the awareness that we don't do dying well, particularly when people are suffering and in physical pain.

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Novel Ways To Think About Grief

Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Mourning, Grief, Grieving, Coping With Death, Dealing With Death, End-of-Life Planning, Dealing With Loss, Death, Coping With Grief, Palliative Care, Dealing With Grief, Coping With Loss, Death & Dying, Healthy Living News
Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D.

This new grief is different. For one thing, it includes the loved one with the diagnosis. It also draws in the entire family into a prolonged crisis that some of our interviewees aptly described as "learning to live with death."

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The Beginning of the End for the War on Drugs?

Joe Amon | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: HIV/AIDS, War on Drugs, Human Rights, Palliative Care, China, Health, Africa, Drug Policy, Human Rights Watch, Marijuana, World News
Joe Amon

This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 21, 2010. A report to the U.N. General Assembly at the end of October abo...

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Talking to Doctors About a Terminal Diagnosis

Judith Johnson | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Terminal Illness, End of Life, End of Life Care, Palliative Care, End of Life Planning, Death & Dying, End-of-Life Care, End-of-Life, Terminal Diagnosis, Healthy Living News
Judith Johnson

You have a right to your own point of view and your own beliefs and preferences regarding the end of your life's journey.

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Medical Society of New York Fights Palliative Care Information Act Despite Mounting Evidence

Barbara Coombs Lee | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: New England Journal of Medicine, Compassion & Choices, Barbara Coombs Lee, Governor Paterson, Palliative Care, New York, New York News
Barbara Coombs Lee

A new bill instructs physicians to discuss a prognosis with seriously ill patients and ask if they would like information on hospice, palliative care and appropriate end-of-life options.

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Treating Grief: The Dangers Of Diagnosis

Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: New Grief, Grief, Palliative Care, Grieving Loss, Death of a Loved One, Death & Dying, Grieving, Healthy Living News
Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D.

Given the way our culture has responded to problems such as anxiety and difficulty sleeping, it is highly likely that we stand poised to try to eradicate grief on a mass level through medication.

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The Case for End-of-Life Care Gets Stronger

Zack Cooper | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: End of Life Care, Palliative Care, Health Care, Healthy Living News
Zack Cooper

A new study reinforces the case for some end-of-life interventions -- like providing access to early palliative care -- as a means for extending life, reducing suffering and saving money.

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New York's Palliative Care Information Act: A Sea Change in End-of-Life Care

Barbara Coombs Lee | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Lung-Cancer, Atul Gawande, Desiree Pardi, Palliative Care, David Paterson, New England Journal of Medicine, Conversation, Palliative Care Information Act, Pcia, Healthy Living News
Barbara Coombs Lee

Word came Sunday night from Compassion & Choices New York that Governor Paterson had signed our bill, the Palliative Care Information Act, (PCIA) ...

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Study Shows Value Of Quality-Of-Life Cancer Care

AP | MARILYNN MARCHIONE | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Cancer Care, Cancer Palliative Care, Palliative Care, Health, Quality of Life Cancer Care, Palliative Care Cancer, Healthy Living News

Palliative care, which helps the gravely ill make the most of the time they have left, provided a surprising bonus for terminal lung cancer patients: ...

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Hospice and Healing

Jeanne Dennis | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Elder Care, Visiting the Sick, Living News, Dying, End-of-Life, Hospice, Caregiver, Palliative Care, Terminal Illness, Healthy Living News
Jeanne Dennis

Those of us in hospice care see one's final days as a continuous part of life's journey, not a land wholly separate and apart. The language and customs are familiar, not foreign, and the travelers are not strangers but are essentially like us.

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18th International AIDS Conference: Action not Rhetoric on HIV and Human Rights

Joe Amon | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Palliative Care, Human Rights Watch, LGBT Rights, Hiv, Harm Reduction, Disability, World News, Drug Policy, World News
Joe Amon

The following is based upon a press release by Human Rights Watch. The upcoming 18th annual International AIDS Conference should focus on reaching th...

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Assisted Suicide: Jack Kevorkian's Legacy and Where We Stand Today

David Casarett, M.D. | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: End of Life Care, Euthanasia, End of Life, Jack Kevorkian, Palliative Care, Assisted Suicide, Health Care, Healthy Living News
David Casarett, M.D.

The suffering and loss of dignity that are so central to the Kevorkian/Levinson view of serious illness aren't inevitable. Although you'd never know it from this film, there are alternatives to Kevorkian's death machine.

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Death Panels, Dignity, and You

Robert Klitzman, M.D. | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Advanced Directives, Living Will, Sarah Palin Death Panels, Palliative Care, End of Life Care, Death Panels, Obama Death Panels, Health Care Reform Death Panels, Living Wills, Advanced Directive, End of Life Discussion, Religion News
Robert Klitzman, M.D.

We now need to revisit the issue of enhancing discussions of end-of-life care. Addressing these issues more fully can help us in many ways. But these are not easy issues.

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