Apr 4 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Price Of Not Talking About Death
Many of us don't know much more than that about death until it comes to live in our own house. Friends may lose family members, but they rarely talk about the uglier aspects of dying. We all conspire to protect one another -- and perhaps our loved ones' dignity -- from the smells, sounds, and suffering that accompany the slow shutdown of vital organs. Why think about that until you absolutely have to? But our reluctance to talk about the mechanics of decline and caregiving comes at a price (Burling, 4/4).
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Living Through The Last Month
I thought we were pretty good at facing facts, but the last month of my husband's life took me into territory so foreign that I could not fully anticipate the problems I would face. Over the years, I've seen papers from health-policy experts who wondered why more people don't die at home when that's what so many want, when that is where you have the best death. The answer now seems obvious to me. Taking care of the dying at home is harder, uglier work than many people can manage, especially with the amount of help that our health-care system provides (Burling, 4/4).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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