About the book...

Dying is part of the process of living. As a leaf buds and shines its youthful color, it must also mature, decay, and die. We are all temporary leaves on the tree of life. We all must fall someday. We should not fear death. We should not ignore death. We must not protect ourselves from the reality of our end. The end of our physical being should not overly concern us. We should instead be concerned about living each and every day as fully as possible. Unfortunately, the issue of death in our society has been denied, hidden, and thus feared. The recent attempts of a few lay people have brought this important issue into people's consciousness. Many physicians, too, are strangers to the real issues of dying. Historically, physicians have been taught to diagnose, treat, and cure. They look at death as failure and therefore shy away from those dying patients whom they have "failed." More efforts must be made to educate the medical community as well as the public about the importance of hospice care. This book attempts to familiarize the reader with the basic concepts of hospice care. Hospice is a philosophy and concept of care whose time has come. Hospice philosophy for the terminally ill incorporates pain control, symptom control (physical and psychological), continuous medical and nursing accessibility, medical direction, utilization of volunteers, home care, training of family members as care givers, and a bereavement program for the survivors.