"One Lone Tear", Dementia at End of Life
The guilt, frustration, uncertainty, and helplessness of family caregivers is as much a problem to our healthcare system as the patient with dementia...
Something to Think About: a blog on end of life
Bereavement
Developing End of Life Expertise
You have to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Learn from your patient/family interactions. At the same time read everything you can get your hands on...
Our Children Aren't Supposed to Die Before Us
From the moment of a diagnosis of a life threatening illness we begin grieving. We grieve not just the eventual losses that come with serious illness but the approaching...
I Hear You, But I Don't Understand
...I remember being with my mother in my hospice Medical Director’s office. He was explaining to my mother his medical findings as they related to her illness. I, being a...
GRIEF- Struggling After Mom's Death
Often after a person dies we forget that there is no perfect relationship, that there are easy times and difficult times. Somehow once a person dies we elevate them to...
IT HAPPENED FOR A REASON? Death of a Child
I suggest writing a letter to the person that died and saying from your heart what you need to say that you didn't say before. I recommend that you write...
A PLACE IN MY HEART, When a Pet Dies
We can be as much at a loss when our pet is dying as we are when a person is dying but there doesn’t seem to be the support and...
Where Is The Hospice I Know and Love?
Hospice can not take the experience and sadness of a loved one dying away. Our goal is to help the family create a sacred experience, to help their loved one...
THIS IS HOW PEOPLE DIE - my latest film
My message throughout all this time has been to educate, educate, educate. Educate anyone who will listen about how people die. To help people understand how death comes, what it...
Grief During the Last Stages of His Life
From the moment of a diagnosis of a life threatening illness we begin grieving. We grieve not just the eventual losses that come with serious illness but the approaching death...
How Do I Pick a Good Hospice?
There have been many changes in hospice care since it began. Some for the better, some not so much. What I am suggesting as representing a “good” hospice is becoming...
"WHY?" Questions Arising Following A Death
When we die we work to leave our body. That work begins months before death from disease actually occurs but we only really see the work happening when death is...