Gloria > Recent Status Updates

"Dying people often to seem to know when their death will occur, sometime right down to the day or hour. Surprisingly, they often face this knowledge not with fear or panic, but with quiet resignation. Their attempts to share information about the time of death may be very clear and direct."

"Those of us who work with dying patients and their families often are asked to explain what seems to be a somber and grueling choice of career. "How can you do it?" "Isn't it depressing?" The truth is that our work brings tremendous satisfaction, fulfillment, and even joy. How is this possible? Part of the answer is that we have to come to recognize the parallels between being born and dying..."

"What do you do when you sense that the patient wants to talk about dying but is protecting you?"

"Television and computers have brought diversity of cultures, religions, and lifestyles into the homes of many people for the first time in human history. No longer do people grow up in the sort of insular provincialism that once defined many communities."

"Whether the issue is insensitivity to feelings and emotions, inattention to pain or other symptoms, or inadequate information, children and families suffer when they encounter pediatricians and other professionals are ill-prepared to offer them competent, consistent, and compassionate palliative, end-of-life, and bereavement care."

"One goal of palliative and end-of-life care is to minimize avoidable conflicts related to poor communication, cultural misunderstandings, deficient clinical care, and approaches to decision making that fail to assure families that they and the health care team are doing their best for the child."

"Two-sidedness is a fundamental feature of death...There are always two parties to a death; the person who dies and the survivors who are bereaved."

"In an extended sense of the word, every living thing can be said to be dying or moving towards death from the moment of its conception."

Sometimes extending forgiveness can be incredibly hard. What can we do when someone we once trusted wounds us so deeply that forgiveness seems inconceivable?"

"Nevertheless, gaps and other problems in the financing of palliative and end-of-life services contribute to access and quality concerns for adults and children living with life-threatening conditions. Complete lack of insurance is an obvious problem."