Caring Community - Death & Dying

How Hospitals Shape End of Life

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 08:18:25 -0800

How Hospitals Shape End of Life Care
Summary of Sharon. Kaufman, PhD Presentation to
California Coalition for Compassionate Care
Steering Committee Meeting June 3, 2005
Excerpted from Minutes of Meeting

Sharon Kaufman, Ph.D. Professor of Medical Anthropology at UC San Francisco recently published a book entitled, And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life. (2005, NY: Scribner). Dr. Kaufman said in her role as a medical anthropologist she “makes the strange, familiar; and makes the familiar, strange.” She described her recent research about the culture of hospitals and how they influence the “problem of death,” which she defined as people dying with too much technology and not enough humanity.

Caring Connections - It's About How You LIVE

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 11:23:23 -0800

Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), is a national consumer engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Caring Connections
-Provides free resources, information and motivation for actively learning about end-of-life resources.
-Promotes awareness of and engagement in efforts to increase access to quality end-of-life care.
-Helps people connect with the resources they need, when they need them.
-Brings together community, state and national partners working to improve end-of-life care.

Caring Resources Guide

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:22:59 -0800

Caring Resources Guide (by the Compassionate Care Alliance of Monterey County) provides links to what may be among the best articles on the web or websites that discuss the many issues about serious illness, caregiving, end-of-life, and grief recovery. Includes information about diagnosis and prognosis, learning how to cope, disease management, and so much more as "A Gateway to Informatioin, Care Choices and Planning."

Children's Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 11:06:25 -0800

Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition of California is a group of organizations, institutions and individuals from throughout the State of California working together to promote compassionate medical care which includes spiritual, emotional and financial support for children with life-threatening illnesses. ...because when a child has a serious illness, medicine is not enough...

Commonweal

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:06:45 -0800

Commonweal is a small twenty-seven-year-old health and environmental research institute in the Point Reyes National Seashore outside the coastal town of Bolinas, California.

Our principal areas of work are with (1) people with cancer and health professionals who work with people with life-threatening illnesses; (2) children and young adults with learning and social difficulties, and the childcare professionals who work with them; and (3) the global search for a healthy and sustainable future.

Compassion and Choices

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:44:15 -0800

Compassion & Choices is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving care and expanding choice at the end of life. They provide free client services to the terminally ill and do legal advocacy through the courts and legislatures. They inform and educate the public through the media and other outreach programs.

Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject

Fri, 13 May 2011 13:09:01 -0700

A gressroots project to improve end of life care, this film sheds light on the 21st century American struggle with communication and preparation at the end-of-life. Throughout the film, there are intimate accounts of the emotional, spiritual, physical and social burdens associated with the historical shift that has occurred with dying. Forty years ago, most people experienced a quick death, but today we are more likely to suffer a slow, incremental dying process.

Consider the Conversation examines multiple perspectives on end-of-life care and includes information and experiences gathered from interviews with patients, family members, doctors, nurses, clergy, social workers, and national experts on death and dying. The film includes in-depth interviews with 40+ individuals from California, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin. 62 “person on the street” interviews were also conducted in New York City in April of 2010.

Consumer Help Site - National Association of Social Workers

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:11:09 -0800

In thousands of ways, social workers help people help themselves. People of every age. From every background. In every corner of the country - wherever we’re needed - starting here and now. Welcome to your source for professional advice, inspiring stories - even a social worker directory. Social workers. Help starts here. This website is provided by the National Association of Social Workers and includes sections on Seniors and Aging, Issues and Answers, Mind and Spirit. The Senior section includes in-depth look issues of import, real life stories shared, resources of value, current trends, helpful tip, options and other information helpful for finding one’s way through the senior years. The Health and Well Being section includes information related to death and dying, living with illness, pain management, etc. The Mind and Spirit section includes orientation to various mental illnesses, grief & loss and other helpful information.

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:25:17 -0800

For more than 20 years, the Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project uses Medicare data to provide information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. This research has helped policymakers, the media, health care analysts and others improve their understanding of our health care system and forms the foundation for many of the ongoing efforts to improve health and health systems across America.

Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:33:42 -0800

The Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live is a new book by Dr. Scott Eberle, Medical Director, Hospice of Petaluma. “This book is itself a rite of passage. Extraordinary insights shared by two remarkable people, one dying, the other the inner life and decisions of the physician and friend attending this fine fellow preparing to head into death. This is the best work of its sort I have come across. There are so many levels, so many books in this book that it might well become a teaching text in many classrooms.” Stephen Levine, author of Who Dies?, Healing into Life and Death, and A Year to Live

Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:51:27 -0800

The Finding Our Way: Living With Dying in America national newspaper series appeared in more than 160 newspapers, reaching millions of Americans (www.findingourway.net). That series consisted of 15 articles created by a distinguished group of authors and editors, and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels, and Charitable Leadership Foundations.

This hybrid web-cdrom course offers a new opportunity for Americans to learn from the widely read newspaper series. The 15 Finding Our Way articles, and the inspiring stories they contain, are the heart of this course. In addition, the Finding Our Way authors have contributed discussion questions, additional resources, and insights that are important components of the course. The discussion questions can be used for small group discussion or for individual reflection, and the course can be taken at any time and at any pace that works for you. Upon successful completion of the course and the final examination, an electronic certificate of completion will be issued to you. No continuing education units are available for this learning experience. We hope you enjoy the course and find the information it contains useful to you in your personal life or in your work as a professional or volunteer caregiver.

Franciscan Medical Group's Improving Care through the End of Life

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:11:40 -0800

Franciscan’s Improving Care through the End of Life program helps people live the end of their lives as fully as possible. By integrating palliative care (pain and symptom management) with education, reliable support, and links to a broad range of community and health care resources, they reach out to make sure the needs and desires of patients and their loved ones are heard, supported, and met.

Heartland Hospice

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:22:44 -0800

The mission of Heartland Hospice is to provide specialized care that meets the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and loved ones facing the challenges of an advanced illness. The quality of life for those we serve is enhanced by encouraging personal choices, supporting meaningful experiences and preserving dignity. Our staff is actively involved in all aspects of the patient’s care. We collaborate with the patient, family, attending physician, and facility staff (if patient is residing in an extended care facility) to collaborately focus on providing comfort, pain and symptom management, spiritual and emotional support.

Hospice By The Bay

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45:23 -0800

Hospice By The Bay, formerly known as Hospice of Marin, is an independent, Medicare and Medi-Cal certified not-for-profit healthcare provider diligently attending to essential physical, spiritual and psychological needs of adults and children who are coping with various stages of progressive and incurable illness in Marin and Sonoma counties.

For nearly three decades, Hospice By The Bay’s goal has been to help terminally ill patients and their loved ones make the most of every remaining moment of life, and to provide education and advocacy for the communities we serve. To that end, we have established the Hospice of Marin Foundation to ensure the availability of hospice and palliative care programs and services for all those in need.

Hospice Foundation of America

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:13:25 -0800

Hospice Foundation of America is a not-for-profit organization that provides leadership in the development and application of hospice and its philosophy of care. Through programs of professional development, research, public education and information, Hospice Foundation of America assists those who cope either personally or professionally with terminal illness, death, and the process of grief.