How To Be A Friend To A Friend Who’s Dying: Five Best Practices
"Question: Are you able to face death with your friend or do you bail?" (Continue reading ...)
Don’t Let The Patient Die
"'Don’t let the patient die'… is that the right thing or the wrong thing for a given patient? It is time for physicians to think that through more completely and allow, perhaps, a different answer." (Continue reading ...)
‘Til Death Do Us Part!
Death. Mortality. End of Life. Something inevitable, yet rarely discussed and a source of intense discomfort for most. When mentioned, it is considered inauspicious and rude in many cultures. Death is an integral part of the workday for a Critical Care Physician like me. But it was never a topic of discussion in Medical School or training. (Continue reading ...)
Being Present In The Unpredictable
The most touching moments are those when I get to witness a client’s surrender to the natural course of things … when the control and desperation subside and acceptance fills the void. (Continue reading ...)
Precious Time
Not everyone gets Precious Time. It is a blessing if we recognize it for what it is, name it, and face it. (Continue reading ...)
Medical Aid In Dying Is Still Called “Assisted Suicide”; An Anthropologist Explains The Problem With That
It’s time that we revise and refine our cultural lexicon around this emergent end-of-life practice. A medically assisted death definitively warrants a linguistic and conceptual category of its own. (Continue reading ...)
Adults Can Help Children Cope With Death By Understanding How They Process It
It’s important to have age-appropriate dialogue with children about death. (Continue reading ...)
Fear Of Death Underlies Most Of Our Phobias
There is growing research exploring the overwhelming anxiety that the inevitability of death, and our uncertainty about when it will occur, has the power to create. A social psychological theory, called terror management theory (TMT), is one way to understand how this anxiety influences our behaviour and sense of self. (Continue reading ...)
What Is A Good Death? How To Die Well.
Decisions are often made unilaterally without necessarily considering what the one dying wants or needs. A respectful death involves truly listening to the dying and being open and honest with them and the family. (Continue reading ...)
The Lost Art Of Dying Well
When sickness and death strike, sometimes guidance from the past offers the clearest path forward. (Continue reading ...)