Article of Interest : The Long Goodbye

Klein J. The Long Goodbye. (Cover story). Time [serial online]. June 11, 2012;179(23):18-25. Available at :   http://tinyurl.com/c349549  (Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA.) Accessed June 11, 2012.

Online access is available to citizens of Wisconsin through Badgerlink.

An excellent article about end-of-life care and the Geisinger model.

Final Chapter: Californians' Attitudes and Experiences with Death and Dying

From The GeriPal Blog, Feb 21, 2012. 

 

A new survey commissioned by the California HealthCare Foundation gives some great insight into the attitudes and experiences that Californians have with death and dying. The survey, conducted by Lake Research Partners and the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, polled a representative sample of 1669 adult Californians including 393 respondents who lost a loved one in the past 12 months. The results can be summarized as follows :       Read More ...

Our Unrealistic Attitudes About Death through a Doctor's Eyes

Love this piece. Great images: medical checkmate, medical house of cards, suffering is like fire, and "We sure put Dad thru the wringer!"

Nancy

by Craig Bowron. Published in The Washington Post Opinions on February 17, 2012.   Link to full article. 
Dr. Bowron is a hospital-based internist in Minneapolis.

I know where this phone call is going. I’m on the hospital wards, and a physician in the emergency room downstairs is talking to me about an elderly patient who needs to be admitted to the hospital. The patient is new to me, but the story is familiar: He has several chronic conditions — heart failure, weak kidneys, anemia, Parkinson’s and mild dementia — all tentatively held in check by a fistful of medications. He has been falling more frequently, and his appetite has fallen off, too. Now a stroke threatens to topple this house of cards.  Read more ...

When Surrogates Override the DNR : A Terrific Geriatrics and Palliative Care Teaching Video

I came across this excellent post on the GeriPal Blog.  
It includes a video  that would be very helpful for teaching. -- Nancy

"I'd like to draw GeriPal readers' attention to a terrific article from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society called, "When Doctors and Daughters Disagree: Twenty-two Days and Two Blinks of an Eye."  The paper is by Peter Abadir, Tom Finucane, and Matthew McNabney (Hopkins).

While I'm sure this paper is of great interest to ethicisits, clinicians, and researchers, my primary motivation for blogging about it is the potential for use as a teaching tool. The free availability of the video of the daughters recounting their experiences, emotions, and thoughts is such a compelling portrayal of the emotional and ethical complexities of the case.  And you won't lose the forest for the trees.  The primary teaching point - that family should be involved in advance care conversations - is made clearly by the daughter in the video."     Read More ...

FAST Dementia Scale

Hospices use the FAST Dementia Scale to qualify patients for Hospice.

Here's a link : http://geriatrics.uthscsa.edu/tools/FAST.pdf 

Poetry Helps us Embrace Death

In an article called "How to Get Ready for Death," Rob Ruff says that "Poets have a unique and insightful way of helping us embrace the not-easily embraceable truth that death will come, without fail, for each of us." Some of his favorite poems on the subject are :

The Death Deal by Ron Padget
The Poet struggles against but eventually begins to look forward to his own eventual death.

When Death Comes by Mary Oliver, in which the poet voices her wish to live fully, with amazement, curiosity, and joy before death comes for her "like the hungry bear in autumn ..."

The Last Thing by the Irish poet Monk Gibbons.  The Poet reminds us that death is an experience common to all people.  Thus we can approach death's door bravely, trusting that "where so much greatness and gentleness have been already, you should be glad to follow." 

Pediatric Advanced Care Planning and Life Review Tools

5 Wishes : Aging with Dignity    Link to this Website.

Advance care planning for children with special health care needs: a survey of parental attitudes.

Wharton RH, Levine KR, Buka S, Emanuel L.   Pediatrics. 1996 May;97(5):682-7.   PMID:   8628607. 

Link to this Article. (HealthSource Nursing via EbscoHost)   

Care of the dying adolescent: special considerations.

Freyer DR.   Pediatrics. 2004 Feb;113(2):381-8.  PMID: 14754953.

Link to this Article. (AAP Website)

The Decision-Making Tool : Information for Families.  Seattle, WA : Seattle Children's Hospital ; 2003. 
Link to this Document.

Development, feasibility, and acceptability of the Family/Adolescent-Centered (FACE) Advance Care Planning intervention for adolescents with HIV.    Lyon ME, Garvie PA, Briggs L, He J, McCarter R, D'Angelo LJ.   J Palliat Med. 2009 Apr;12(4):363-72.   PMID:   19327074.  
Link to this Article. (PubMed Central)

End-of-life care preferences of pediatric patients with cancer.

Hinds PS, Drew D, Oakes LL, Fouladi M, Spunt SL, Church C, Furman WL.

J Clin Oncol. 2005 Dec 20;23(36):9146-54. Epub 2005 Sep 19.  PMID:  16172453.

Link to this Article (JCO Website).

How I wish to be remembered: the use of an advance care planning document in adolescent and young adult populations.    Wiener L, Ballard E, Brennan T, Battles H, Martinez P, Pao M.

J Palliat Med. 2008 Dec;11(10):1309-13.   PMID:  19115889.  

Link to this Article. (PubMed Central)

Is it safe? Talking to teens with HIV/AIDS about death and dying: a 3-month evaluation of Family Centered Advance Care (FACE) planning - anxiety, depression, quality of life.

Lyon ME, Garvie PA, Briggs L, He J, Malow R, D'Angelo LJ, McCarter R.

HIV AIDS (Auckl). 2010;2:27-37. Epub 2010 Feb 18.    PMID:  22096382. 
Link to this Article.   (PubMed Central)

Life's Toughest Moments : A Parent's Guide When Facing End-of-Life Decisions with Their Child.
Smith J, Kvinsland B.  Seattle, WA : Global-HELP ; 2006.
Link to this eBook. 

Memories Life Review Template.   Davis, Kathy.  University of Kansas Medical Center.
Link to this Document.  (Affinity Access Only)

Pediatric advance care planning.

Hammes BJ, Klevan J, Kempf M, Williams MS.   J Palliat Med. 2005 Aug;8(4):766-73.   PMID:   16128650.

Link to this Article.  (Academic Search Premier) 

What do adolescents want? An exploratory study regarding end-of-life decision-making.

Lyon ME, McCabe MA, Patel KM, D'Angelo LJ.    J Adolesc Health. 2004 Dec;35(6):529.e1-6.    PMID:   15581537. 
Link to this Article. (ScienceDirect)

Why Palliative Care and Hospice is the Ultimate Gift

This beautiful article was posted to The KevinMD Blog.   It was written by Deb Discenza.

Dear Doctors:
I am writing no less than 45 days after my mother died from a GI bleed from ovarian cancer.  Not once did my mother’s team of doctors mention palliative care.  It was not until days and even hours before her death that hospice was discussed and implemented. Our family was blind sighted by this.   
Read more ....