Credit
Check out these local and national resources available when confronting difficult medical decisions in the face of illness and death.
Community Resources
Aging With Dignity
Alzheimer's Association
American Senior Housing Association
Begin the Conversation
Belmont Village Senior Living
Circle of Life Partners
UTHealth Consortium on Aging
Get Palliative Care
Georgetown's Understanding Palliative Care Resource
Hope and Healing Center
Institute for Spirituality & Health
Make Your Wishes Known
National Institute on Aging
Blog Posts
Exploring the role of faith in medicine
'End Game' brings palliative care discussions to small screen
Does ECMO life support require a different approach?
‘Let Me Down Easy’ covers complex medical decision making
Making the right choice: The importance of advance care planning
What is palliative medicine?
Life played richly: Learn to live a life of fulfillment
Reading List
Benvenuti, J. (2009) Don’t Give Up On Me! Supporting Aging Parents Successfully.
Brennan, M. (2015) The Heart of the Hereafter.
Broyard, A. (1993) Intoxicated by My Illness.
Bryant, H. (2016) I’ll Have It My Way: Taking Control of End-of-Life Decisions.
Butler, K. (2013) Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death.
Chast, Roz. (2014) Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Frankl, V. (1964) Man's Search for Meaning.
Gawande, A. (2014) Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.
Kalanithi, P. (2016) When Breath Becomes Air.
Lieberman, S. (2013) Death, Dying and Dessert: Reflections on Twenty Questions About Dying.
McCullough, D. M. (2009) My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing “Slow Medicine” - The Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved One. Nuland, S. (1995) How We Die.
Ritvo, M. (2016) Four Reincarnations.
Walrath, D. (2016) Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass.
Wilber, K. (1991) Grace and Grit.
Zaner, D. (2004) Conversations on the Edge.
Questions to Consider
- What goals and priorities are most important to you in making medical decisions?
- If you are unable to speak for yourself, who will speak for you and do they know what you want?
- How are your wishes documented?
- What does a life lived well mean to you?
Advance Care Planning Form
A narrative tool to help elicit a person’s preferences for end-of-life treatments in a way that is more rich and detailed than an advance directive.
How do I plan for my future healthcare decisions?
In this video, we describe the purpose of eliciting and documenting people’s preferences for medical treatment, both in the end-of-life context and medical decision making well before the end of life. We define important advance care planning concepts, and we describe three types of advance directives in Texas.
How do I talk to my patients about their future healthcare?
In this video, we describe the importance for documenting people’s preferences for medical treatment, both in the end-of-life context and medical decision making well before the end of life. Importantly, we describe tips and strategies for how to have this conversation in way that will be received well by patients and families.
