Overview

The number of American adults aged 65 years and older is expected to double within the next 25 years. According to the World Health Organization, cancer rates are expected to surge 57% worldwide in the next 20 years. At some point, all of us will be affected by serious illness directly or through our loved ones, making the issue of suffering and care both timely and urgent. Our medical system is inept at providing healing care when cure is not possible. As a result, a growing number of doctors, organizations, and advocates for humanized medicine are sounding the alarm against the unnecessary suffering imposed on the seriously ill by a system that has completely lost sight of the art of care (see the popularity of books like those of Dr. Ira Byock, Dr. Atul Gawande, Dr. Robin Youngson, etc.) A majority of Americans die in the hospital or in nursing homes without the kind of care that would ease their suffering. At the same time, an estimated 60 million Americans struggle at home on their own trying to care for a seriously ill family member. Given a choice, most of us want to die peacefully and with dignity in our own home but without completely draining our loved ones. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) estimate that 40 million people worldwide require palliation in the year leading up to their death. In 2014, these organizations started a petition for the inclusion of hospice and palliative care in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a fundamental human right.

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9781631520624

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Reviews

It is a privilege to recommend this book to doctors, nurses, social workers, and other practitioners of the healing arts as they try to improve their skills at treating the chronically and terminally ill. Others interested in how best to approach such patients will find it a wonderful read. Lawrence P. Levitt, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, and coauthor of Uncommon Wisdom: True Tales of What Our Lives as Doctors Have Taught Us About Love, Faith, and Healing Compelling reading for families of persons with life-threatening illnesses and their healthcare professionals. Many people back away from living with death as one s constant companion. This book permits us to envision living with dying in a humane, compassionate manner. Mary Valentich, PhD, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Canada Beautifully and tenderly written . . . the gentle weaving of these stories reminds us to mix equal parts of technology, love, and compassion throughout our lives to the end . . . for all caregivers, these stories underline the need for technology to be wedded to love and compassion at the end of life. Carol McVeigh, RN, Palliative Care Nurse, Canada (1943 2015) In some ways I know much more than I knew when I first started at St. Paul s PCU, and in other ways there is so much I don t know and don t have the skills or wisdom to address, and those are the issues that you particularly address namely, suffering, the relief of suffering, and meaning meaning of the illness, and meaning of one s life, particularly if life is seen to be in jeopardy. Your stories/vignettes take us to the places where we feel uncomfortable and where we fear to go, but where we do need to go, particularly if we [are to] do more than just lip service to the concept of true, holistic palliative care. Millie Cumming-Chalmers, MD, Palliative Care Physician, Canada Helen Allison, a compassionate, caring nurse with a special insight into the feelings of patients in pain and a nurse who must have been loved and respected by patients and peers. This book is a must read for all health care professionals. Rhoda Anderson, President, Lakes District Unit, Canadian Cancer Society, Hospice Volunteer, Canada

It is a privilege to recommend this book to doctors, nurses, social workers, and other practitioners of the healing arts as they try to improve their skills at treating the chronically and terminally ill. Others interested in how best to approach such patients will find it a wonderful read. Lawrence P. Levitt, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, and coauthor of Uncommon Wisdom: True Tales of What Our Lives as Doctors Have Taught Us About Love, Faith, and Healing Compelling reading for families of persons with life-threatening illnesses and their healthcare professionals. Many people back away from living with death as one s constant companion. This book permits us to envision living with dying in a humane, compassionate manner. Mary Valentich, PhD, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Canada Beautifully and tenderly written . . . the gentle weaving of these stories reminds us to mix equal parts of technology, love, and compassion throughout our lives to the end . . . for all caregivers, these stories underline the need for technology to be wedded to love and compassion at the end of life. Carol McVeigh, RN, Palliative Care Nurse, Canada (1943 2015) In some ways I know much more than I knew when I first started at St. Paul s PCU, and in other ways there is so much I don t know and don t have the skills or wisdom to address, and those are the issues that you particularly address namely, suffering, the relief of suffering, and meaning meaning of the illness, and meaning of one s life, particularly if life is seen to be in jeopardy. Your stories/vignettes take us to the places where we feel uncomfortable and where we fear to go, but where we do need to go, particularly if we [are to] do more than just lip service to the concept of true, holistic palliative care. Millie Cumming-Chalmers, MD, Palliative Care Physician, Canada Helen Allison, a compassionate, caring nurse with a special insight into the feelings of patients in pain and a nurse who must have been loved and respected by patients and peers. This book is a must read for all health care professionals. Rhoda Anderson, President, Lakes District Unit, Canadian Cancer Society, Hospice Volunteer, Canada Unlike much of medical literature, even in the area of death and dying, this volume by Helen Allison and Irene Allison is written from the heart and speaks to the heart. Therein lies its transformative power. As a former palliative care physician and future dying human, I am profoundly grateful. Gabor Mate M.D., best-selling author of When The Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

Author Information

Scottish highlander by birth, Canadian by home, Helen Allison was born with healing hands and a caregiving heart. During her long career as a palliative nurse and medical social worker, she pursued a person-centered approach to champion the ill and their families. She is senior author of Social Work Services as a Component of Palliative Care with Terminal Cancer Patients (Haworth Press). She now shares her life’s learning that to ease suffering, the art of care must embody patient wisdom. Former technical author and teacher, Irene Allison is a graduate of Humber College’s Creative Writing Program and Simon Fraser University’s Writing and Publishing Program. She is honored to join a growing movement that invites heart into health care and compassion into people’s lives.

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