Hospice 101

Imagine getting help in that situation. Real physical down to earth help.

Imagine a hospice nurse stopping by your own home two to three times a week. Checking your vitals. Helping you be able to sleep. Helping you feel less pain.

Imagine hospice nurses being on call 24/7 for your and your loved one's concerns.

Imagine a social worker stopping by to help you complete things. Things left undone or too long. Things that are on your mind. Worrying you.

Like signing papers declaring your last wishes about your care and your body. Help with funeral or cremation arrangements.

Things like a finding a long lost niece. Contacting a son who you have not spoken with in years.

I am available as an inspirational speaker about all aspects of death including the luminous side of dying for both US and international events. Click here to find out more about my talks and click here to contact me.

Imagine a physical therapist stopping by to help you be comfortable in your body. Like finding the best way to get your ailing body from the bed to the living room. Teaching your loved ones how to best transfer you from one place to another.

Imagine a volunteer coming by a couple hours a week. To read to you. To help you finish that last photo album. To give your wife a break.

Imagine a harpist coming to your bedside. Playing soothing and relaxing music. Just for you and your loved ones. Or a choir of gentle voices bringing you comfort.

Imagine all of that available for you and your loved ones. Your own Hospice 101. Only a doctor's visit and a phone call away. In over 200 countries. In many places. In many different flavors.

Imagine feeling completely taken care of for that so important journey home.

A Book Suggestion
Heidi Telpner: One Foot in Heaven

Hospice nurses act as midwife to dying people every day. Death transforms not just the patient and family but the hospice nurse as well. Hopefully this book will transform the reader s notions of death and dying and give new meaning to the words hospice care for the terminally ill.

Hospice 101: Links

Both the dying and their loved ones can use all the help that is available. Below are a few links further defining hospice care and its services. They also offer insights into the history of hospice, and provide a worldwide look at hospice and palliative services as part of Hospice 101.


Wikipedia: Hospice Care in the United States
Hospice care in the United States is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature.
Wikipedia: Hospice Care in the United States


Hospice/Palliative Care Worldwide
A great list of worldwide hospice and palliative care resources
Hospice/Palliative Care Worldwide


The Hospice Movement: Current and Worldwide Situation, 2002
According to St. Christopher's Hospice in Great Britain, there are more than 7000 hospices or palliative care services in over 90 countries. (PDF file) The Hospice Movement: Current and Worldwide Situation


In Hospice, Care and Comfort as Life Wanes
by By JANE E. BRODY in the New York Times, Nov 30, 2009
Patients receiving hospice care tend to live longer and die more peacefully than those who get intensive care for their disease after the treatment no longer helps. In Hospice, Care and Comfort as Life Wanes (you have to sign in to read the full article)

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