Advance Care Planning / End of Life

Certainly, there’s nothing new about ageism in our society. Bias against older individuals, and treating seniors as second class citizens, is something many of us have experienced as we’ve entered our later years. Perhaps what’s new, however, is the public airing of attitudes that were previously kept private, due to…

The prospect of losing a loved one is tough enough. To lose a loved one and provide some of the nitty-gritty, hands-on end-of-life care required before death just makes it all the more difficult. But for many family caregivers, that’s the reality they face, as more and more patients at…

Have you ever actually witnessed it? Up close? Been at the bedside as the last breath is drawn? Few of us have actually experienced first hand what it’s like to be in the presence of those who are dying- and that’s a problem for us as a society. Because without…

Many of us have spent years crafting what we would consider “the good life” for ourselves. But few of us have probably taken the next step and begun to craft what would be considered “a good death.” In fact, thinking about the end of your life is, for most of…

It’s not exactly cocktail conversation, but there’s something brewing in our society’s new openness to talking about death and the rituals that surround it. Perhaps the funeral industry is just another area ripe for “disruption.” A recent exposé in Washington Monthly details the way the “death industry” has taken advantage…

Sometimes you have time to plan and strategize in advance- and sometimes you don’t. When a loved one dies, there are innumerable consequences- some logistical, some legal, some financial, some emotional- that inevitably follow. And while everyone has a different path to chart when a loved one passes away, there…