A Patient Recounts His Experience With Hospice Care

It is rare to read a first-person patient account of hospice care. However, sometimes a terminally ill patient is able to offer us a window into their hospice experience. Robert Friedman, a retired University of Oregon professor and actor, wrote an eloquent account of his hospice care that was published posthumously on November 11 in The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon.)

A Professor's Final Lecture to His Students and Beyond

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch's final lecture to his students has been widely reported on. Pausch is suffering from pancreatic cancer and has a few months to live. His words have inspired not only the students he teaches, but a much larger audience on the importance of living your life to the fullest each day.

HFA's A Guide to Recalling and Telling Your Life Story is a beautiful, award winning workbook designed to help a person tell his or her life story. Page by page, it suggests topics--such as Family, Adult Life, Growing Older, and Reflections--and questions to reflect upon. The questions can be helpful to the person sharing the memories, as well as provide other family members with a way to elicit stories and experiences.

The Financial Costs of Caring for a Spouse

Claire Howard of the Journal Star reports on the financial implications of caregiving for patients with chronic or terminal illness. In most cases in the United States, spouses cannot be paid as caregivers, forcing many couples to make difficult decisions regarding care. Many spouses work outside the home, placing their loved one in long-term care or a nursing home. Others resort to divorcing in order to be paid for giving care to their former spouse. Howard relates personal examples of these difficult choices.

Novel Alzheimer's Conference Planned to Bring Together Those Experiencing the Disease

Los Angeles Times reporter Mary Engle writes about a unique conference planned by two patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Instead of gathering together caregivers, it will focus on people suffering from memory loss and other early stage symptoms. Organizers Richard Bozanich and Jay Smith, patients themselves, want to show others that 'There's still a lot of good living to do.' Bozanich and Smith are part of an early stage advisory board of the national Alzheimer's Association; they have lobbied Congress and spoken at conferences around the country. The conference will be held at Los Angeles' Skirball Cultural Center on Oct. 27, 2007.

HFA's Year 2004 initiave focused on Alzheimer's Disease. Read available chapters from the book Living With Grief: Alzheimer's Disease and other resources.

The Importance of Volunteers in Hospice and Palliative Care

Nancy Forsyth, a palliative care volunteer for 25 years, speaks of the importance of volunteering to care for the terminally ill. Forsyth has an aggressive form of lung cancer and is forgoing further treatment for the cancer. The Shoreline Beacon article discusses how her experience as a volunteer is helping her while dealing with her own illness.

Are you interested in becoming a hospice or palliative care volunteer ? Volunteers in hospice find it personally gratifying, intellectually stimulating, and emotionally meaningful to assist those in need at a critical point in their lives.

Hospice Offers Serenity at End of Life

Story of a hospice patient in Canada, and how hospice helped him rediscover purpose at the end of life.

Read more hospice stories on HFA's website.

Printed August 26, 2007.

A Patient's Personal Hospice Experience

Read Echomouse's blog about her experience with hospice care in Canada and the wonderful support it is providing her. Posted August 20, 2007.

Read more hospice stories on HFA's website.