Something to Think About

There are many different approaches and offerings. These multiple choices give you the chance to match your personality with the instructors and teaching methodology...

Part of "selling" hospice is to create trust and a bond during that first meeting. It takes people skills in addition to knowledge of hospice benefits...

Denial by the person with a life threatening illness, denial by the caregiver, and I’ll even add denial by some attending physicians. Denial is often the reaction to diseases that have...

...That caregivers put so much energy, time, love, and concern into taking care of their person that they can become blind to or just plain don’t want to see the...

When working with families who ask me not to tell mom, I say that I won’t bring the subject up, but if she asks, I will talk about it.

Someone has to have the courage to say “We’ve done the best we can. We can’t fix you. Let us help you have some quality time”.

Our body is programmed to die. We are born. We experience, and then we die...

Once we get up the courage to call hospice, we want to see you immediately.  Actually, we needed to see you, hear your guidance and advice, and receive your services yesterday. Families...

The physician is frontline, the top of the pyramid in healthcare. All care follows from there. The physician can set the tone for the entire patient experience. 

Why is the patient being discharged, you ask? Is it because the patient just didn’t decline as rapidly as expected? Yes, that can be the situation...

The role of any end of life worker is to begin teaching  immediately, on the first visit -- teaching about approaching death, what to look for, and what to do. That’s...

Our role models from movies and TV show us that dying is gentle, often poetic, certainly not scary or messy. Movies make dying look comfortable.

As caregivers, we want so much to do the “right thing” for our special person. We know death is coming but still try to do all we can to stop...

I knew all the signs of approaching death, of labor beginning. What I didn’t know was how much we don’t want to see those signs, and by not wanting to see them,...

Addressing the timelines of approaching death also neutralizes the false hope that our person will get better, that there is more time.

When we begin the gradual dying process our personality tends to intensify. If we are an angry person we will get angrier. If we have a gentle personality we will...

Not everyone who is dying has pain. Disease causes pain. If pain is not present, a narcotic is not appropriate (except a tiny bit can ease labored breathing is present...

When doctors and healthcare professionals place a number on how long someone has to live they are doing that person a disservice.

We start off alone, then we have Mom and Dad, then family, friends, then the world of school, activities,and involvement in the bigger world around us. When we are leaving, we...

Anger in caregiving generally comes from a place of frustration, of fear, of sadness, of tiredness. All sorts of feelings with no outlet so they come bursting out.

Most of the time this restlessness, this agitation is not destructive. It is not severe. If the movements become thrashing about or hurtful and become a danger to the person...