Overview

Exploring the failure of hospice in America to care for patients and families at the end of life. Hospice is the dominant form of end-of-life care in the United States. But while the US hospice system provides many forms of treatment that are beneficial to dying people and their families, it does not encompass what is commonly referred to as long-term care, which includes help with the activities of daily living: feeding, bathing, general safety, and routine hygienic maintenance. Frequently, such care is carried out by an informal network of unpaid caregivers, such as the person's family or loved ones, who are often ill-prepared to offer this type of support. In The Crisis of US Hospice Care, Harold Braswell argues that the stress of providing long-term care typically overwhelms family members and that overdependence on familial caregiving constitutes a crisis of US hospice care that limits the freedom of dying people. Arguing for the need to focus on the time just before death, Braswell examines how the relationship of hospice to familial caregiving evolved. He traces the history of hospice over the past fifty years and describes the choice that people dying with inadequate familial support face between a neglectful home environment and an impersonal nursing home. A nuanced look at the personal and political dimensions that shape long-term, end-of-life care, this historical and ethnographic study demonstrates that the crisis in US hospice care can be alleviated only by establishing the centrality of hospice to American freedom. Providing a model for the transformative work that is required going forward, The Crisis of US Hospice Care illustrates the potential of hospice for facilitating a new way of living our last days and for having the best death possible.

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9781421429823

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Reviews

The Crisis of US Hospice Care is an honest look at the current problems with hospice care in the United States . . . [Braswell] has opened a door into the real challenges we face in achieving a society. For as Mahatma Gandhi cautioned us, a society's true measure can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. -- Stephen R. Connor, PhD, The Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance * Omega: Journal of Death and Dying * Reading The Crisis of US Hospice Care was a joyful experience . . . Braswell's use of emotional stories gave his argument a soul that could not be ignored and brought me on an unforgettable emotional journey . . . I believe this book should be read by every American that knows someone who is dying and/or will eventually die themselves. -- Brooke Heckel * The Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging * This book is an impressive example of the interdisciplinary scope that works of bioethics can attain. Readers well versed in the topic will find much that is familiar-but often with a new twist that keeps them on their toes. There is also much in these pages that challenges the conventional wisdom on end-of-life care that has evolved over the last half century. -- Bruce Jennings * Hastings Center Report * This book is an incisive account of U.S. hospice policy and practice since its origins in the late 1960s. But it is much more than that. Drawing insightfully on diverse perspectives including bioethics, the health humanities, and disability studies, the book is also an impassioned call for a political movement around the experience of dying that would not only redress policy flaws but make U.S. society more hospitable to dying people and their families and ultimately 'create a new basis for how we understand freedom, our collective mythology, and our national identity.' -- Jesse Ballenger * Bulletin of the History of Medicine * Braswell's book is extremely accessible for audiences of any level while raising important questions . . . It would be a valuable reading for medical professionals, public health professionals, and anyone else interested in healthcare that is provided at a vulnerable time of peoples' lives. -- Anthony Chui * Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine * [T]his very important book should be required reading for both hospice professionals and bioethicists. * Library Journal *

The Crisis of US Hospice Care is an honest look at the current problems with hospice care in the United States . . . [Braswell] has opened a door into the real challenges we face in achieving a society. For as Mahatma Gandhi cautioned us, a society's true measure can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. -Stephen R. Connor, PhD, The Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying Reading The Crisis of US Hospice Care was a joyful experience . . . Braswell's use of emotional stories gave his argument a soul that could not be ignored and brought me on an unforgettable emotional journey . . . I believe this book should be read by every American that knows someone who is dying and/or will eventually die themselves. -Brooke Heckel, The Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging This book is an impressive example of the interdisciplinary scope that works of bioethics can attain. Readers well versed in the topic will find much that is familiar-but often with a new twist that keeps them on their toes. There is also much in these pages that challenges the conventional wisdom on end-of-life care that has evolved over the last half century. -Bruce Jennings, Hastings Center Report This book is an incisive account of U.S. hospice policy and practice since its origins in the late 1960s. But it is much more than that. Drawing insightfully on diverse perspectives including bioethics, the health humanities, and disability studies, the book is also an impassioned call for a political movement around the experience of dying that would not only redress policy flaws but make U.S. society more hospitable to dying people and their families and ultimately 'create a new basis for how we understand freedom, our collective mythology, and our national identity.' -Jesse Ballenger, Bulletin of the History of Medicine Braswell's book is extremely accessible for audiences of any level while raising important questions . . . It would be a valuable reading for medical professionals, public health professionals, and anyone else interested in healthcare that is provided at a vulnerable time of peoples' lives. -Anthony Chui, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine [T]his very important book should be required reading for both hospice professionals and bioethicists. -Library Journal

The Crisis of US Hospice Care is an honest look at the current problems with hospice care in the United States . . . [Braswell] has opened a door into the real challenges we face in achieving a society. For as Mahatma Gandhi cautioned us, a society's true measure can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. -- Stephen R. Connor, PhD, The Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance * Omega: Journal of Death and Dying *

The Crisis of US Hospice Care is an honest look at the current problems with hospice care in the United States . . . [Braswell] has opened a door into the real challenges we face in achieving a society. For as Mahatma Gandhi cautioned us, a society's true measure can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. -- Stephen R. Connor, PhD * Omega: Journal of Death and Dying * Reading The Crisis of US Hospice Care was a joyful experience . . . Braswell's use of emotional stories gave his argument a soul that could not be ignored and brought me on an unforgettable emotional journey . . . I believe this book should be read by every American that knows someone who is dying and/or will eventually die themselves. -- Brooke Heckel * The Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging * This book is an impressive example of the interdisciplinary scope that works of bioethics can attain. Readers well versed in the topic will find much that is familiar-but often with a new twist that keeps them on their toes. There is also much in these pages that challenges the conventional wisdom on end-of-life care that has evolved over the last half century. -- Bruce Jennings * Hastings Center Report * This book is an incisive account of U.S. hospice policy and practice since its origins in the late 1960s. But it is much more than that. Drawing insightfully on diverse perspectives including bioethics, the health humanities, and disability studies, the book is also an impassioned call for a political movement around the experience of dying that would not only redress policy flaws but make U.S. society more hospitable to dying people and their families and ultimately 'create a new basis for how we understand freedom, our collective mythology, and our national identity.' -- Jesse Ballenger * Bulletin of the History of Medicine * Braswell's book is extremely accessible for audiences of any level while raising important questions . . . It would be a valuable reading for medical professionals, public health professionals, and anyone else interested in healthcare that is provided at a vulnerable time of peoples' lives. -- Anthony Chui * Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine * [T]his very important book should be required reading for both hospice professionals and bioethicists. * Library Journal *

Author Information

Harold Braswell is an assistant professor of health care ethics at Saint Louis University.

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