OPINIÓN: Preparándonos para la muerte en la era del coronavirus
For our Spanish speaking followers: OPINIÓN: Preparándonos para la muerte en la era del coronavirus
End-of-life planning eases the pain
I will never forget watching my 4th grade teacher, Irene Herrin, a family friend whom I adored, die an agonizingly slow and painful death from cancer at age 65. Irene had no living family when she got sick. There was no one to advocate for her and to find out how and whether she wanted [...]
Do You Want to Die in an I.C.U.? Pandemic Makes Question All Too Real
4.24.20 Via The New York Times: Sobering statistics for older patients sharpen the need to draw up advanced directives for treatment and share them with their families. Earlier this month, Cheryl Goldman, a retired high school teacher living on Long Island, called her son, Edo Banach, in Maryland. It seemed a routine chat until [...]
COVID-19 Toolkit
COVID-19 has given many Americans a new awareness of their own mortality and raised the relevancy of end-of-life planning. With that awareness is a new set of challenges: concern over whether a ventilator will be available if you need it; confusion over treatment options; and concerns about dying in complete isolation from your family — [...]
Staying Stronger Together A Webinar Series
From Compassion & Choices: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re adapting our programs to continue to connect with you through a webinar series. Throughout the series, we are inviting guests to talk about navigating your preferences for the end of life. Compassion & Choices’ Tools to Finish Strong lays the groundwork for our conversations. [...]
Note from the CEO of Compassion & Choices
Terminal illnesses can’t be put on hold. As I look out the window and welcome the first signs of spring — trees flowering, warmer weather, birds singing — life almost feels normal. It’s nearly unfathomable that just a couple of weeks ago, life WAS normal. Today, our world is dramatically different. Uncertainty is the new normal, as [...]
Using Telehealth to Ensure Access to Adequate Care and a Compassionate Death in the Age of Coronavirus
Even for an organization that deals with health crises every day, the COVID-19 pandemic is sobering and calls for new tactics. In the early days of the pandemic, our seriously ill and terminally ill supporters began expressing deep-seated concerns: concerns that they were more vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus and dying prematurely, concerns that the [...]
Storyteller Spotlight: Rita Perdichizzi
Rita Perdichizzi of Fayetteville, Georgia, is taking a proactive — and positive — approach to her diagnosis of early-onset dementia. Rita Perdichizzi knows vividly how relentless Alzheimer’s disease is, having helped care for her father the five years he lived with it before dying at age 76. As his disease progressed, he lost his ability [...]
National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD), April 16, 2020
National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD), April 16 this year, is always a time when Compassion & Choices places particular emphasis around consumer empowerment and end-of-life planning. This year, with the coronavirus ravaging communities worldwide, the importance of understanding, planning and advocating for one’s care preferences at life’s end is of paramount importance. “Over the past [...]
As Healthcare Professionals Plan for COVID-19, You Should Too
We are living in an unprecedented time as we adjust to the rapidly changing healthcare landscape created by COVID-19. Hospitals and healthcare professionals are trying to manage the demands created by the influx of affected patients and reported shortages of hospital beds and ventilators. Nursing home populations and older adults, often with underlying chronic medical [...]