Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2014

Keywords

Palliative care, Cultural change

Abstract

This Task Force was charged with identifying best practices related to cultural change regarding end of life issues. However, we believe that there is no single best practice at the community level. Our community and cultural responses related to living with serious illness and facing our own mortality or experiencing the death of loved ones continue to evolve. Our generation is the first that that has cared for parents or other loved ones in a health care system that has the potential for keeping people alive too long – and these experiences are changing our feelings about what choices we want at the end of life. Additionally our community is becoming more diverse and that change also will be reflected in attitudes, emotions, and customs related to death and dying. There are many critical questions that still need to be asked and countless answers and solutions. We provide recommendations in four major domains: Collaboration, Conversations, Education/Access, and Activation.

“There is so much we do as a community that is part of being in this journey we call life together. We take care of each other; we learn from one another, we take action together. We are on this collection of roads together and we often do it really well, regardless of the lack of instructions we have been given. My friend, Sydney once wrote, ‘life is a journey where the roadmap is handed out at the end. We figure it out, and often elegantly. There is no cure for life, it is terminal for us all, but we often find grace along the way.” ~Geof Morgan, director of the Whatcom Family and Community Network

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Palliative treatment--Washington (State)--Whatcom County; Terminal care--Psychological aspects

Geographic Coverage

Whatcom County (Wash.)

Genre/Form

reports

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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