Assisting Bereaved College Students by
Research indicates that rather than an isolated incident experienced by only a few college students, bereavement is a life transition or crisis faced by a significant share of the campus population at any given time. Death loss experiences and subsequent grief reactions have the strong potential to affect the functioning and overall development of bereaved students.
This sourcebook brings together perspectives from the fields of higher education and thanatology (the study of death and dying) to provide a mix of theoretical, research, and practice perspectives for coping with death and bereavement on campus.
The initial chapters move from a macro-level focus on the prevalence of bereaverment on campus to theoretical and empirical approaches for understanding how students cope with death and then to practical approaches for supporting and assisting bereaved students. The volume then explores administrative responses to death, including issues of suicide, death notification, and practical guidance in the aftermath of student death.
Death is a fact of life college students, whether they are traditional-age or adult learners, undergraduates or graduate students, full-time or part-time students, or on-campus residents or commuters. Members of the higher education community need to be ready to respond when death touches the lives of students to provide support and assistance.
Of course, institutions have unique characteristics, and the composition of student populations differs widely. The materials and guidelines presented in this volume should be considered in light of these contextual factors. With this in mind, the editors have created a sourcebook that provides useful guidance for a caring response.
Chapters include
Grieving: 22 to 30 Percent of All College Students Developmental and Contextual Perspectives on Bereaved College Students Lessons of Loss: Meaning-Making in Bereaved College Students Designing and Conducting Grief Workshops for College Students Training Faculty Members and Resident Assistants to Respond to Bereaved Students Suicide and Its Impact on Campus Guidelines for Death Notification in College Student Populations Student Death Protocols: A Practitioner′s Perspective
This is the 121st volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services , offering guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.
At Deaths Door by
At Death's Door: End of Life Stories from the Bedside tells the powerful story of Sebastian Sepulveda's experiences in working with patients at the end of their lives. In some cases, death came quickly, after the patient was first diagnosed with a terminal condition and entered the hospital. In other cases, patients had a long, progressive illness that got increasingly worse over the months or years until they were in their final days. In some cases, patients were able to fight off death for many years. Hard decisions are often made--whether to resuscitate or not, whether to choose hospice or not, who makes the decisions when a patient cannot, and whose decision to follow when several family members are involved in decision making. Written from the perspective of a medical doctor from years of experience, this personal approach to the end of life explores the many options available to patients and their families and reveals how real people have come to those decisions, and how they play out. With insight and sensitivity, Sepulveda offers families an important window into how life can end with compassion, care, control, and dignity. At Death's Door features over fifty stories drawn from Sepulveda's experience as a doctor dealing with these patients and families. As states debate the legality of assisted suicide and other end of life rights, real people make real decisions every day regarding end of life. Their stories come to life in these pages, and readers with similar concerns will find relief, comfort, and company as they face these decisions themselves.
A Beginner's Guide to the End by
"The first ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying--and living fully until you do. "There is nothing wrong with you for dying," palliative care doctor BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger write in A Beginner's Guide to the End. "Our ultimate purpose here isn't so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do." Theirs is a clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but. Their book offers everything from step-by-step instructions for how to do your paperwork and navigate the healthcare system to answers to questions you might be afraid to ask your doctor, like whether or not sex is still okay when you're sick. You'll be walked through how to break the news to your employer, whether to share old secrets with your family, how to face friends who might not be as empathetic as you'd hoped, and to how to talk to your children about your will. (Don't worry: if anyone gets snippy, it'll likely be their spouses, not them.) There are also lessons for survivors, like how shut down a loved one's social media accounts, clean out the house, and write a great eulogy. An honest, surprising, and detailed-oriented guide to the most universal of all experiences, A Beginner's Guide to the End is the one book that everyone needs"--
"The first-ever soup-to-nuts practical guide to preparing for death, from how to talk to your children about your will, to how to hack the hospice system, to how your survivors can pull off a great eulogy. Think of this as What to Expect When You're Expecting to Die
Being Mortal: medicine and what matters in the end by
In Being Mortal , bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.
Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.
Changing the Way We Die: compassionate end-of-life care and the hospice movement by
There's a quiet revolution happening in the way we die. More than 1.5 million Americans a year die in hospice care - nearly 44 percent of all deaths - and a vast industry has sprung up to meet the growing demand. Once viewed as a New Age indulgence, hospice is now a $14 billion business and one of the most successful segments in health care. Changing the Way We Die , by award-winning journalists Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel, is the first book to take a broad, penetrating look at the hospice landscape.
Changing the Way We Die is a vital resource for anyone who wants to be prepared to face life's most challenging and universal event. You will learn:
Hospice use is soaring, yet most people come too late to get the full benefits. With the age tsunami, it becomes even more critical for families and patients to choose end-of-life care wisely. Hospice at its best is much more than a way to relieve the suffering of dying. It is a way to live.
Winner of the 2014 Independent Publisher Award Silver Medal in Aging/Death & Dying
Death and Dying by
The process of dying and death itself are topics many people prefer not to think about, yet all of us inevitably face as we deal with the loss of friends and family members, and ultimately our own death. This volume includes first hand accounts of different people's ways of grieving and coping and the role faith and/or religion plays in the process. There are also first hand accounts from individuals explaining their reasons for choosing the moment of death for themselves or a loved one as well as first hand accounts of near death experiences.
Encyclopedia of Death and Dying by
This is a reference source for death, dying and related concepts. It should prove a useful resource for teachers, researchers, professionals and for all those with a lay interest in issues of mortality. There has, over the last 10 to 15 years of the 20th century, been an upsurge in academic, professional and lay interest in mortality. This is reflected in academic and professional literature; in the popular media; and in the proliferation of professional roles and training courses associated with aspects of death and dying. Despite its all pervading significance, however, the majority of texts in death and dying have been designed for particular disciplinary audiences and as such they deal, in depth, with specific academic or professional concerns. By contrast, this volume offers readers a wide range of information that draws from many disciplines and isolated professions in the arts, humanities, medicine, sciences, and social sciences.
Funeral service psychology and counseling by
Funeral service psychology and counseling -- Needs of the bereaved -- Purposes and value of the funeral -- Theories of grief -- Normal grief reactions -- Determinants of grief -- Complicated grief -- Children and death -- Explaining death to children -- Grief and family systems -- Counseling -- Essential interpersonal skills for the counselor -- Characteristics of a good counselor -- Intervention strategies for grief counselors -- Crisis intervention counseling -- Aftercare -- Funeral director's own grief -- Stress and the funeral director -- Taking care of the caregiver.
Greening Death by
We once disposed of our dead in earth-friendly ways--no chemicals, biodegradable containers, dust to dust. But over the last 150 years death care has become a toxic, polluting, and alienating industry in the United States. Today, people are slowly waking up to the possibility of more sustainable and less disaffecting death care, reclaiming old practices in new ways, in a new age. Greening Death traces the philosophical and historical backstory to this awakening, captures the passionate on-the-ground work of the Green Burial Movement, and explores the obstacles and other challenges getting in the way of more robust mobilization. As the movement lays claim to greener, simpler, and more cost-efficient practices, something even more promising is being offered up--a tangible way of restoring our relationship to nature.
The Grim Reader: writings on death, dying, and living on by
The fear of death, the pain of bereavement, the art of consolation, and the custom of mourning--these are experiences with which all mortals must reckon. In The Grim Reader , editors Maura Spiegel and Richard Tristman have gathered the best classic and contemporary writing on mortality--from Montaigne to Monty Python--to produce an essential resource for the heart and mind. These idiosyncratic and always enlightening pieces are grouped into thematic parts in which a diversity of perspective on death are revealed. From death in its most personal sphere to the major issues of death in the public realm, The Grim Reader offers a fresh and unmediated encounter with mortality and the many dimensions of grief and recovery.
Handbook of Death and Dying by
Dying is a social as well as physiological phenomenon. Each society characterizes and, consequently, treats death and dying in its own individual ways-ways that differ markedly. These particular patterns of death and dying engender modal cultural responses, and such institutionalized behavior has familiar, economical, educational, religious, and political implications.
The Handbook of Death and Dying takes stock of the vast literature in the field of thanatology , arranging and synthesizing what has been an unwieldy body of knowledge into a concise, yet comprehensive reference work. This two-volume handbook will provide direction and momentum to the study of death-related behavior for many years to come.
Key Features
More than 100 contributors representing authoritative expertise in a diverse array of disciplines Anthropology Family Studies History Law Medicine Mortuary Science Philosophy Psychology Social work Sociology Theology A distinguished editorial board of leading scholars and researchers in the field More than 100 definitive essays covering almost every dimension of death-related behavior Comprehensive and inclusive, exploring concepts and social patterns within the larger topical concern Journal article length essays that address topics with appropriate detail Multidisciplinary and cross-cultural coverage
Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by
A hilarious take on the philosophy, theology and psychology of mortality and immortality. That is, death. The authors pry open the coffin lid on this one, looking at the Big D, its prequel, Life, and its sequel, the Hereafter. Philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre have been wrestling with the meaning of death for as long as they have been wrestling with the meaning of life. Fortunately, humorists have been keeping pace with the major thinkers by creating gags about dying. Death's funny that way - it gets everybody's attention.
How We Die: reflections on life's final chapter by
Attempting to demythologize the process of dying, Nuland explores how we shall die, each of us in a way that will be unique. Through particular stories of dying--of patients, and of his own family--he examines the seven most common roads to death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, accidents, heart disease, and strokes, revealing the facets of death's multiplicity. "It's impossible to read How We Die without realizing how earnestly we have avoided this most unavoidable of subjects, how we have protected ourselves by building a cultural wall of myths and lies. I don't know of any writer or scientist who has shown us the face of death as clearly, honestly and compassionately as Sherwin Nuland does here."--James Gleick From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Inevitable: contemporary writers confront death by
Birth is not inevitable. Life certainly isn't. The sole inevitability of existence, the only sure consequence of being alive, is death. In these eloquent and surprising essays, twenty writers face this fact, among them Geoff Dyer, who describes the ghost bikes memorializing those who die in biking accidents; Jonathan Safran Foer, proposing a new way of punctuating dialogue in the face of a family history of heart attacks and decimation by the Holocaust; Mark Doty, whose reflections on the art-porn movie Bijou lead to a meditation on the intersection of sex and death epitomized by the AIDS epidemic; and Joyce Carol Oates, who writes about the loss of her husband and faces her own mortality. Other contributors include Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman, Peter Straub, and Brenda Hillman.
The Law of Life and Death by
Are you alive? What makes you so sure? Most people believe this question has a clear answer--that some law defines our status as living (or not) for all purposes. But they are dead wrong. In this pioneering study, Elizabeth Price Foley examines the many, and surprisingly ambiguous, legal definitions of what counts as human life and death.
Foley reveals that "not being dead" is not necessarily the same as being alive, in the eyes of the law. People, pre-viable fetuses, and post-viable fetuses have different sets of legal rights, which explains the law's seemingly inconsistent approach to stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, in utero embryos, contraception, abortion, homicide, and wrongful death.
In a detailed analysis that is sure to be controversial, Foley shows how the need for more organ transplants and the need to conserve health care resources are exerting steady pressure to expand the legal definition of death. As a result, death is being declared faster than ever before. The "right to die," Foley worries, may be morphing slowly into an obligation to die.
Foley's balanced, accessible chapters explore the most contentious legal issues of our time--including cryogenics, feticide, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, brain death, vegetative and minimally conscious states, informed consent, and advance directives--across constitutional, contract, tort, property, and criminal law. Ultimately, she suggests, the inconsistencies and ambiguities in U.S. laws governing life and death may be culturally, and perhaps even psychologically, necessary for an enormous and diverse country like ours.
Life Lessons: two experts on death and dying teach us about the mysteries of life and living by
We all have lessons to learn during this time called life; this is especially apparent when working with the dying. The dying learn a great deal at the end of life, usually when it is too late to apply. After moving to the Arizona desert in 1995, I had a stroke on Mother's Day that left me paralyzed. I spent the next few years at death's door. Sometimes I thought death would come within a few weeks. Many times, I was disappointed that it did not come, for I was ready. But I have not died because I am still learning the lessons of life, my final lessons. These lessons are the ultimate truths about our lives; they are the secrets to life itself. I wanted to write one more book, not on death and dying but on life and living.
Is this really how I want to live my life?
Each one of us at some point asks this question. The tragedy is not that life is short but that we often see only in hindsight what really matters.
In Life Lessons , her first book on life and living, Elisabeth K#65533;bler-Ross joins with David Kessler to guide readers through the practical and spiritual lessons we need to learn so that we can live life to its fullest in every moment. Many years of working with the dying have shown the authors that certain lessons come up over and over again. Some of these lessons can be difficult to master, but even the attempts to understand them are deeply rewarding. Here, in fourteen accessible chapters, from the Lesson of Love to the Lesson of Happiness, the authors reveal the truth about our fears, our hopes, our relationships, and, above all, the grandness of who we really are.
Men Coping with Grief by
The primary purpose of ""Men Coping With Grief"" is to bring together, in a single publication, a very diverse group of authors who have considerable knowledge to share about the ways men grieve and how their bereavement experiences impact various aspects of their lives. The adjustment process is multidimensional in that grief can affect nearly every aspect of a person's life including emotions, identity, social interactions and relationships, spirituality, intimacy and sexuality, work productivity, health, and even mortality.The chapter authors have expertise in history, philosophy, journalism, poetry, sociology, psychology, anthropology, social work, nursing, health education, gerontology, religious studies and business. They represent professionals in academics, research, clinical service, business, the clergy, and many more. Each author offers his or her insights, opinions, personal experiences and supporting evidence to explain what we should know about the ways men grieve, why they grieve in a particular way and how this knowledge might be best applied to assist them.
Mortality by
On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for his bestselling memoir, Hitch-22 , Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for Vanity Fair, he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.
Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this riveting account of his affliction, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.
MORTALITY is the exemplary story of one man's refusal to cower in the face of the unknown, as well as a searching look at the human predicament. Crisp and vivid, veined throughout with penetrating intelligence, Hitchens's testament is a courageous and lucid work of literature, an affirmation of the dignity and worth of man.
Nothing to Be Frightened Of by
Two years after the best-selling Arthur & George, Julian Barnes gives us an essay on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. If the fear of death is the most rational thing in the world, how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty, an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for and against and with God, and at the bloodline whose archivist, following his parents' death, he has become--another realm of mystery, wherein a drawer of mementos and his own memories (not to mention those of his philosopher brother) often fail to connect. There are other ancestors, too: the writers--most of them dead, and quite a few of them French--who are his daily companions, supplemented by composers and theologians and scientists whose similar explorations are woven into this account with an exhilarating breadth of intellect and felicity of spirit. Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.
On Living by
A hospice chaplain passes on wisdom on giving meaning to life, from those taking leave of it. As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan didn't offer sermons or prayers, unless they were requested; in fact, she found, the dying rarely want to talk about God, at least not overtly. Instead, she discovered she'd been granted an invaluable chance to witness firsthand what she calls the "spiritual work of dying"--The work of finding or making meaning of one's life, the experiences it's contained and the people who have touched it, the betrayals, wounds, unfinished business, and unrealized dreams. Instead of talking, she mainly listened: to stories of hope and regret, shame and pride, mystery and revelation and secrets held too long. Most of all, though, she listened as her patients talked about love--love for their children and partners and friends; love they didn't know how to offer; love they gave unconditionally; love they, sometimes belatedly, learned to grant themselves. This isn't a book about dying--it's a book about living. And Egan isn't just passively bearing witness to these stories. An emergency procedure during the birth of her first child left her physically whole but emotionally and spiritually adrift. Her work as a hospice chaplain healed her, from a brokenness she came to see we all share. Each of her patients taught her something--how to find courage in the face of fear or the strength to make amends; how to be profoundly compassionate and fiercely empathetic; how to see the world in grays instead of black and white. In this poignant, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along all their precious and necessary gifts"-- "A hospice chaplain shares the meaning the dying make of their lives, to help us understand what is ultimately important and to make the most of our own still-being-lived lives"
Option B by
After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. "I was in 'the void," she writes, "a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe." Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl's personal insights with Adam's research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart -- and her journal--to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl's loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere and to rediscover joy. Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead.
The Right to Die by
We all die, but should we have the ability to choose when? Death is part of life, but not everyone agrees on the details. What if you have painful, terminal illness? Is it okay to seek suicide if a doctor assists? Do you have a right to end your own life? Is doing so a violation of God's or a greater power's plan? This anthology engages this dilemma from diverse perspectives, grounding abstract and moral discussions in real-life events such as Oregon's right-to-die law. Students will analyze the various facets of this controversial subject with decisive interpretations from religion, medicine, law, and philosophy.
Staring at the Sun: overcoming the terror of death by
Written in Irv Yalom's inimitable story-telling style, Staring at the Sun is a profoundly encouraging approach to the universal issue of mortality. In this magisterial opus, capping a lifetime of work and personal experience, Dr. Yalom helps us recognize that the fear of death is at the heart of much of our anxiety. Such recognition is often catalyzed by an "awakening experience"-a dream, or loss (the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job or home), illness, trauma, or aging.
Once we confront our own mortality, Dr. Yalom writes, we are inspired to rearrange our priorities, communicate more deeply with those we love, appreciate more keenly the beauty of life, and increase our willingness to take the risks necessary for personal fulfillment.
Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers by
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers--some willingly, some unwittingly--have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
There Is No Good Card for This by
"The creator of the viral hit "Empathy Cards" teams up with a compassion expert to produce a visually stunning and groundbreaking illustrated guide to help you increase your emotional intelligence and learn how to offer comfort and support when someone you know is in pain. When someone you know is hurting, you want to let her know that you care. But many people don't know what words to use--or are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. This thoughtful, instructive guide, from empathy expert Dr. Kelsey Crowe and greeting card maverick Emily McDowell, blends well-researched, actionable advice with the no-nonsense humor and the signature illustration style of McDowell's immensely popular Empathy Cards, to help you feel confident in connecting with anyone experiencing grief, loss, illness, or any other difficult situation. Written in a how-to, relatable, we've-all-been-that-deer-in-the-headlights kind of way, There Is No Good Card for This isn't a spiritual treatise on how to make you a better person or a scientific argument about why compassion matters. It is a helpful illustrated guide to effective compassion that takes you, step by step by step, past the paralysis of thinking about someone in a difficult time to actually doing something (or nothing) with good judgment instead of fear. There Is No Good Card for This features workbook exercises, sample dialogs, and real-life examples from Dr. Crowe's research, including her popular "Empathy Bootcamps" that give people tools for building relationships when it really counts. Whether it's a coworker whose mother has died, a neighbor whose husband has been in a car accident, or a friend who is seriously ill, There Is No Good Card for This teaches you how to be the best friend you can be to someone in need"-- When people you know are hurting, you want to let then know that you care. But many people don't know what words to use-- or are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Crowe and McDowell have created a guide to help you increase your emotional intelligence and learn how to offer comfort and support when someone you know is in pain. They take you, step by step by step, past the paralysis of thinking about someone in a difficult time to actually doing something (or nothing) with good judgment instead of fear.
Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson by
Finally available in paperback--the first runaway #1 bestseller and modern inspirational classic by the bestselling author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Albom tells the story of his reconnection with his college professor and mentor, Morrie Schwartz, and their visits in the months prior to Morrie's death.
What Happens When You Die: from your last breath to the first spadeful by
This intriguing glimpse into the once mysterious aspects of death tells what happens-- step-by-step-- during the embalming and cremation processes.
Here you will find information once known only to funeral directors, including:
What happens to the body when attacked by organisms it once easily fought off
The varied religious beliefs surrounding funerals and wakes
The evolution of embalming: From the ancient Egyptian religious rite to embalming as we know it today, which began during the Civil War, When bodies were shipped home for burial
Alternatives to embalming, including mummification... and much more
"What Happens When You Die" explains simply and in startling detail-- with no touch of the macabre-- what happens when we enter a realm where two divergent forces control our destiny; the undertaker and the soul.
When My Time Comes by
What do you want when you are near the end of life? All too often, Rehm argues, this question goes unaddressed or unresolved, whether from uncertainty, from fear, or from a lack of awareness of the resources that are at hand for helping the terminally ill decide for themselves what they want to do.
She argues that every human being deserves to die with dignity, and she points to the recent legislation in six states and Washington, D.C., providing citizens with the right to choose end-of-life medical aid. She examines the current debates among numerous state legislatures about whether or not to adopt similar laws.
Through interviews with terminally ill patients, physicians, ethicists, spouses, and relatives (and including voices vigorously opposed to the movement), Rehm tells the moving stories of those who are personally linked to the realities of Medical Aid in Dying, including the family of Brittany Maynard, who became a public face of the movement when she chose to end her life in Portland, Oregon, in 2014. A documentary film featuring many of the interviews Rehm conducted will air at the time of the book's publication.
When My Time Comes is a corrective to misconceptions and misrepresentations of end-of-life care; it is a call to action; and it is an attempt to heal and soothe our hearts, reminding us that death, too, is an integral part of life.
The Year of Magical Thinking by
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage-and a life, in good times and bad-that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later-the night before New Year's Eve-the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself . "
Two Kisses for Maddy by
The author's memoir recounting his wife Liz's death shortly after the birth of their daughter Madeline and how he and his daughter Maddy have built a life for themselves--grounded in large part in the life and marriage he shared with Liz.
Adolescent Encounters with Death, Bereavement, and Coping by
Over a decade has passed since the publication of the groundbreaking Handbook of Adolescent Death and Bereavement. Much has transpired since then in terms of theoretical understandings, research advances, and practical experiences. The Handbook appeared in a pre-9/11 world. We know more about complicated bereavement than we did in 1996. This book explores the numerous imaginative conceptual frameworks and models have appeared on the scene: the dual process model for understanding loss, ideas about assumptive worlds, debates about the benefit and harm of grief counseling with the normally bereaved, efforts to bridge the gap separating researchers and practitioners, and stimulating essays about recovery and resilience following bereavement. Additionally, unlike the Handbook, Adolescent Encounters with Death, Bereavement, and Coping emphasizes cultural factors that often significantly the adolescent coping with death. The book is also a research-based text, providing considerable focus in each chapter on peer-reviewed research dealing with the various topics.
Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry by
With the help of medicine and technology we are living longer than ever before. As human life spans have increased, the moral and political issues surrounding longevity have become more complex. Should we desire to live as long as possible? What are the social ramifications of longer lives? How does a longer life span change the way we think about the value of our lives and about death and dying? Christine Overall offers a clear and intelligent discussion of the philosophical and cultural issues surrounding this difficult and often emotionally charged issue. Her book is unique in its comprehensive presentation and evaluation of the arguments—both ancient and contemporary—for and against prolonging life. It also proposes a progressive social policy for responding to dramatic increases in life expectancy. Writing from a feminist perspective, Overall highlights the ways that our biases about race, class, and gender have affected our views of elderly people and longevity, and her policy recommendations represent an effort to overcome these biases. She also covers the arguments surrounding the question of the'duty to die'and includes a provocative discussion of immortality. After judiciously weighing the benefits and the risks of prolonging human life, Overall persuasively concludes that the length of life does matter and that its duration can make a difference to the quality and value of our lives. Her book will be an essential guide as we consider our social responsibilities, the meaning of human life, and the prospects of living longer.
At Liberty to Die: The Battle for Death with Dignity in America by
Over the past hundred years, average life expectancy in America has nearly doubled, due largely to scientific and medical advances, but also as a consequence of safer working conditions, a heightened awareness of the importance of diet and health, and other factors. Yet while longevity is celebrated as an achievement in modern civilization, the longer people live, the more likely they are to succumb to chronic, terminal illnesses. In 1900, the average life expectancy was 47 years, with a majority of American deaths attributed to influenza, tuberculosis, pneumonia, or other diseases. In 2000, the average life expectancy was nearly 80 years, and for too many people, these long lifespans included cancer, heart failure, Lou Gehrig’s disease, AIDS, or other fatal illnesses, and with them, came debilitating pain and the loss of a once-full and often independent lifestyle. In this compelling and provocative book, noted legal scholar Howard Ball poses the pressing question: is it appropriate, legally and ethically, for a competent individual to have the liberty to decide how and when to die when faced with a terminal illness?
A Child's View of Grief by
Parents, teachers, and other adults can learn through this concise and caring guide to how children and adolescents grieve after someone they love dies. Exploring the six reconciliation needs of mourning, this helpful resource recognizes that grieving children are especially deserving of an emotional environment of love and acceptance. Including a historical perspective on children and death, this handbook helps adults recognize the importance of empathy toward a grieving child, and provides guidelines for involving children in funeral services. These suggestions can help anyone who wants to help young people better cope with grief so that they can go on to become emotionally healthy adults themselves.
Choices for Living by
Although many books are written about bereavement, very few are written about the fear of one's own death and most of these focus chiefly on terminal illness. In contrast, this book looks at the ways in which the fear of death operates on a back burner throughout our lives and how it influences the choices we make and the paths that we follow in life. The author presents a `moral hierarchy'of behavior used in coping with the fear of death and dying.
Describing Death in America: What We Need to Know by
National expenditures for medical care in the months and days preceding death are enormous. But we do not know whether that money is buying good quality care or optimizing the quality of life of those dying, or whether the situation is getting better or worse over time. The information that exists “describing death†at a national level â€" though some of it is very informative â€" is fragmentary. This report recommends ways to fill the information gaps by better use of existing nationally-representative data, and through some new measures, in particular, a new, ongoing National Mortality Followback Survey. The aim is to allow us to benchmark where we are today as a society, and what goals we can set to minimize pain and suffering and maximize the quality of life of all of us who will die in the years to come.
The Magical Thoughts of Grieving Children: Treating Children with Complicated Mourning and Advice for Parents by
This book is designed for clinicians, educators, clergy, and nurses - anyone who is assisting children who have experienced the death of a loved one. This work offers a unique framework for helping children heal from the wounds created by the life process of death, a framework that has its defining basis in children's magical thought. Magical thought is motivated by the desire of a child with incomplete cognitive equipment to understand his world. Magical thought helps children develop inaccurate conclusions about many aspects of death and their own personal grief, often suggesting that they or someone else is responsible for the loss.
Parting Ways by
Parting Ways explores the emergence of new end-of-life rituals in America that celebrate the dying and reinvent the roles of family and community at the deathbed. Denise Carson contrasts her father's passing in the 1980s, governed by the structures of institutionalized death, with her mother's death some two decades later. Carson's moving account of her mother's dying at home vividly portrays a ceremonial farewell known as a living wake, showing how it closed the gap between social and biological death while opening the door for family and friends to reminisce with her mother. Carson also investigates a variety of solutions--living funerals, oral ethical wills, and home funerals--that revise the impending death scenario. Integrating the profoundly personal with the objectively historical, Parting Ways calls for an "end of life revolution" to change the way of death in America.
Singing Mother Home: A Psychologist's Journey Through Anticipatory Grief by
A therapist and expert on grief is faced with the slow decline of her beloved mother. She imparts to the reader lessons learned, both personal and professional, in anticipating grief and the loss of a loved one. “This is a unique book by a professional who understands the field of loss and grief. . . . Poignantly heartbreaking.”—Melba Vasquez, President, American Psychology Association’s Division on Counseling Psychology
Still Here with Me: Teenagers and Children on Losing a Parent by
Winner of the Young Minds Book Prize 2007This book is a moving and thoughtful anthology of the experiences of thirty-one children and teenagers who have lost a parent.In their own words, children and young people of a variety of ages talk openly and honestly about losing their mother or father. They describe feelings of pain, loss and anger, the struggle to cope with the embarrassed reactions and silence of others, and the difficulties involved in rebuilding their lives. They also share happy and loving memories of their parents, and talk about the importance of remembering while learning to accept their parent's death.The accounts cover a variety of circumstances in which a parent died, including death from cancer, heart attack and involvement in an accident. Taboo experiences which are often avoided are also covered, including death through alcoholism, natural disaster, war, suicide, and domestic violence. The book displays a courageous and insightful group of children and young people who prove that it is possible to talk openly about these subjects without stigma.Still Here with Me will be a valuable source of information and comfort to young people who are struggling to cope with the loss of a parent. It will also provide insights into the needs of grieving children for parents, teachers, social workers and other professionals.
What Dying People Want: Practical Wisdom for the End of Life by
Facing death results in more fear and anxiety than any other human experience. Though much has been done to address the physical pain suffered by those with a terminal illness, Western medicine has been slow to understand and alleviate the psychological and spiritual distress that comes with the knowledge of death. In What Dying People Want, Dr. David Kuhl begins to bridge that gap by addressing end-of-life realities--practical and emotional--through his own experiences as a doctor and through the words and experiences of people who knew that they were dying. Dr. Kuhl presents ways of finding new life in the process of dying, understanding the inner reality of living with a terminal illness, and addressing the fear of pain, as well as pain itself. He also offers concrete guidance on how to enhance doctor/patient relationships and hold family meetings, and provides an introduction to the process of life review. It is possible to find meaning and peace in the face of death. What Dying People Want "helps us learn to view the knowledge of death as a gift, not a curse." (New Times)
