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Welcome to Hospice & Palliative Care Today, a daily email summarizing numerous topics essential for understanding the current landscape of serious illness and end-of-life care. Teleios Collaborative Network podcasts review Hospice & Palliative Care Today monthly content - explore these and all TCN Talks podcasts.
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Hospice & Palliative Care Today moves toward this July 4th--the 250th anniversary of the United States--by celebrating a different kind of story: the long, uneven history of how Americans have responded to suffering. This mural invites us to see that across war, epidemic disease, poverty, injustice, disability, serious illness, dying, and grief, the story of our country is also a story of service—of people who nursed, advocated, reformed, comforted, and widened the circle of care.
Our daily 25-part series traces a history marked by struggle and courage, by failures that demanded truth-telling and by acts of compassion that opened new possibilities for healing—not a straight-line tale of progress, nor a simple chronicle of harm. Join us each day in our “Timelines: Where we are now,” reflecting on how the past shapes the hospice and palliative care we provide today—and the chapters we are called to write next. ~ Joy S. Berger, Editor in Chief
2. Serious illness care exclusion, disclosure, & trust for older gay men & caregivers in the Deep South
3. Psychometric testing of the Hospice Perceptions Instrument (HPI) for patients and families in the United States
4. Goals of care discussions in medical training: Integrating palliative care for holistic, patient-centered care
5. Knowledge of advance care planning and advance directives among US adults: Implications for health policy and practice
6. Temporal association of palliative care consultation with the trajectory of broad-spectrum antibiotic use at the end of life in advanced cancer: A nationwide linked cohort study
7. Caregiving stressors and sleep outcomes: Examining group differences among caregivers of persons living with dementia
8. Management of catatonia in Huntington disease: A scoping review
10. [Portugal] Reiki and Therapeutic Touch for symptom burden and quality of life in palliative settings: A systematic review
Palliative Care & Social Practice; by Anna J. Pedrosa, Ulla Näppä, Minna Hökkä, Jose Pereira, Piret Paal, Jan Kaňák, Gabija Jarašiūnaitė-Fedosejeva, Michael Connolly, John Ellershaw, Sabina Antoniu, Gulcan Bagcivan, Laura Ciria-Suarez, Stephen Mason, Tania Pastrana; 5/26
Serious illness care exclusion, disclosure, & trust for older gay men & caregivers in the Deep South
Journal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Korijna Valenti, Margaret Armstrong, Michael Barnett, Stacy Smallwood, Ronit Elk; 5/26
Older gay men in the Deep South experience serious illness within healthcare systems shaped by heteronormativity and structural racism. Although disparities in access and disclosure are documented, less is known about how negative or ambiguous healthcare encounters are interpreted in serious illness settings. Using a community-based participatory research approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants (11 patients aged 50 years or older living with serious illness and 5 caregivers) residing in the Deep South. Five themes emerged: discriminatory experiences and bias, clinician communication gaps, exclusion from decision-making, system-level gaps in care quality, and disclosure, trust, and safety. Participants described overt and subtle forms of bias, dismissal of partners in clinical encounters, rushed or unclear communication, and institutional barriers that intensified vulnerability during serious illness. Black participants more frequently identified racialized experiences and contextualized mistrust within histories of systemic racism.
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Journal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Cara L. Wallace, Kathryn Coccia, Lily McMorrow, Danielle Dant, Verna L. Hendricks-Ferguson, Ricardo Wray, Karen Bullock, Antonia V. Bennett, Patrick White, Divya S. Subramaniam; 5/26
Goals of care discussions in medical training: Integrating palliative care for holistic, patient-centered care
Healthcare; by Celine Rochon, Farzana Hoque; 5/26
Goals of care discussions are essential communication skills in medical training that bridge patient values with clinical decision-making. Integrating palliative care principles into these conversations enables holistic, patient-centered care, yet medical trainees often lack structured preparation for these critical interactions. Integrating palliative care principles into medical training for goals of care discussions is essential for developing patient-centered clinicians. Combining structured communication frameworks, interprofessional education, targeted skills training, and technological support creates a comprehensive educational approach that prepares trainees to elicit patient goals, create individualized care plans, and deliver holistic care that honors patient values.
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Knowledge of advance care planning and advance directives among US adults: Implications for health policy and practice
Palliative Care & Social Practice; by Anisah Bagasra, Gretchen Agans; 5/26
Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of identifying and communicating values and goals in preparation for future shared decision-making in medical settings. Decisions are legally supported by an advance directive (AD) document designating healthcare agent(s) and future medical treatment preferences. Although important, ACP engagement in the United States remains low. Findings indicate persistent gaps in ACP and AD literacy among US adults, along with misconceptions about access, time, and costs that may be contributing to low engagement. Increasing public education and expanding access to knowledgeable professionals may help reduce barriers and promote more equitable engagement in ACP.
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Caregiving stressors and sleep outcomes: Examining group differences among caregivers of persons living with dementia
The Journals of Gerontology; by Fei Wang, Seungjong Cho, Anne Conway, Yejin Heo, Christine Lau, Karyne Machry; 5/26
Caring for persons living with dementia often involves high levels of physical demands and emotional burden, which may undermine caregivers’ sleep quality. Few studies have examined sleep health among Black caregivers of persons living with dementia, despite the fact that they are underrepresented in dementia research and experience poorer sleep outcomes compared to non-Hispanic White caregivers. Subjective caregiving stressor (i.e., role overload) was positively associated with sleep disturbance. A significant interaction showed that the association between role overload and sleep disturbance was stronger among Black caregivers than in non-Hispanic White caregivers. Findings also suggest that Black caregivers of persons living with dementia may experience greater vulnerability to the adverse role of role overload in relation to sleep.
Catatonia, a rare and mostly unstudied comorbidity of HD [Huntington disease], presents with mutism, rigidity, and agitation. Although catatonia is uncommon in HD, its clinical management poses significant challenges due to the absence of primary literature and lack of established treatment guidelines in these patients. Given the risk of misdiagnosis and hence inappropriate pharmacologic management, it is critically important to examine the reported cases of catatonia in HD. This scoping review aims to explore the clinical assessment and management of catatonia among individuals with HD.
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The skeleton is a frequent site of metastatic spread, leading to skeletal-related events (SREs) such as pathological fractures, spinal cord compression, and refractory pain that profoundly impact patient survival and quality of life. Traditionally managed by a triad of radiotherapy, surgery, and systemic treatments, the landscape of bone metastasis care has undergone a major paradigm shift. Interventional Radiology (IR) has emerged as the "fourth pillar" of oncology, evolving from a palliative last-resort tool into a proactive specialty integrated into precision medicine and multidisciplinary decision-making. This review details the state-of-the-art IR techniques, from devascularization via embolization to advanced cryoablation, emphasizing their strategic integration into modern care pathways. It highlights the transition from simple symptom management to aggressive, curative-intent strategies in the era of personalized oncology, where IR serves as a bridge between conservative medical therapy and invasive surgical intervention.
[Portugal] Reiki and Therapeutic Touch for symptom burden and quality of life in palliative settings: A systematic review
Palliative Medicine; by Raquel Pontes-Gomes, Paulo Reis-Pina; 5/26
Evidence regarding Reiki and Therapeutic Touch in palliative and end-of-life care remains limited and heterogeneous. Nine studies involving 415 participants were included: five mixed-methods studies, three randomized controlled trials, and one qualitative cross-sectional study conducted in North America (n = 6) and Europe (n = 3). Cancer was the predominant diagnosis. Some studies reported improvements in symptoms (pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stress), and in quality-of-life domains (sleep, relaxation, energy, hope, and emotional well-being). Qualitative findings described perceived relaxation, comfort, and emotional support. Further well-designed studies are needed to clarify their potential role in palliative care.
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1877-1886: 250 Years - A History of Care
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; for 6/20/26
Read details and explore source links
- Clara Barton and the Founding of the American Red Cross, 1881
- Westward Expansion and Displacement, 1870s–1880s — New Starts, Old Wounds
- The Gilded Age & High Society (late 1870s–1890s)
The Fine Print:
Paywalls: Some links may take readers to articles that either require registration or are behind a paywall. Disclaimer: Hospice & Palliative Care Today provides brief summaries of news stories of interest to hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care professionals (typically taken directly from the source article). Hospice & Palliative Care Today is not responsible or liable for the validity or reliability of information in these articles and directs the reader to authors of the source articles for questions or comments. Additionally, Dr. Cordt Kassner, Publisher, and Dr. Joy Berger, Editor in Chief, welcome your feedback regarding content of Hospice & Palliative Care Today. Unsubscribe: Hospice & Palliative Care Today is a free subscription email. If you believe you have received this email in error, or if you no longer wish to receive Hospice & Palliative Care Today, please unsubscribe here or reply to this email with the message “Unsubscribe”. Thank you.