Literature Review

When the end of life feels like a beginning: a hospice encounter raises questions medicine can't answerBroadview; by Ralph Klose; 9/8/26 As a retired neuropsychologist and longtime hospice companion, I often wonder what can still be measured at the end of life — and what cannot. ... Magda had lived in the hospice for three months. A former violinist, she rarely spoke about her past. But her hands still moved in gentle arcs, as if drawing invisible phrases from the air. ... One afternoon, I entered her room and paused. The air felt different — not cold, not scented, but bright. The blinds were closed. No sunlight entered. And still, the space around her shimmered faintly, like a curtain of breath. Her skin looked translucent. Her lips moved, but no sound came. Later, as I sat quietly at her bedside, a nurse whispered, “She’s speaking with someone.” There was no theology in her gestures. No visions of angels. But something had changed — as if a second world had unfolded beside the first, not replacing it, but resting gently alongside. ...

Grieving children need more than our sympathy. They need a place to belong Rhode Island Current; by Deanna Upchurch; 9/8/26 Children who lose a close family member grieve differently than adults, and their grief changes as they grow. A loss experienced at 8 can take on an entirely different meaning at 12, 16 or 25. A child can be deeply sad and still want to swim, make art, play games and laugh with friends. HopeHealth makes room for all of it at Camp BraveHeart. This summer, 100 grieving children and teens attended our day camp at Camp Hoffman in South Kingstown with another 75 experiencing the camp offered in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. ... According to the 2026 Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, 1 in 11 children in the United States —- about 6.6 million —- will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18.

The prevalence of Medical Power of Attorney documentation in a large healthcare system: A retrospective cohort studyJournal of Palliative Care; by Angeli Sirilan, Alexandria Ellershaw, Tony Gaidici, Jacob Lahti, Michael Ruta, Richard Elias, Sandeep Pagali, Kristina Balangue, Sumit Agarwal, Nimit Agarwal; 8/26Designation of a Medical Power of Attorney (MPOA) is a key component of advance care planning (ACP) that ensures patient preferences are honored when decision-making capacity is not present. This study aimed to quantify MPOA documentation rates [in adult hospitalized patients] and identify demographic and clinical factors associated with documentation presence. Male sex, White race, older age (67.0 vs 54.3 years), and unmarried status were associated with a higher MPOA documentation rate ...  Dementia ...  and malignancy ...  were associated with higher odds, while discharge against medical advice was associated with lower odds ...  of MPOA documentation. Conclusions: MPOA documentation rates were low, highlighting missed opportunities to identify alternate decision makers when a patient lacks capacity.

Longtime hospice volunteer grateful for ability to help patients, families Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, MS; by Leslie Criss; 9/1/26 Back in 2000 when Pat Rutledge was new to Fulton, she realized she needed to find something to do with her time. She went through training to become a volunteer at North Mississippi Health Services Hospice. That was more than 20 years ago. "I'm the only volunteer from back then still here," said the 83-year-old. "I was assigned a patient, went to visit and just fell in love with being a hospice volunteer."Editor's Note: As hospice organizations' names, ownership, and services shift over the years, do your volunteers still feel seen? Pat began in her mid-50s and stayed 25 years — proof that purpose and appreciationcan keep a volunteer for decades. Look at your volunteers: what are you doing--today--to help them stay, through years ahead? What is something new you can do?

[United Kingdom] Stirling University expert helps design dementia friendly flat for F1 legend Jackie Stewart's wife Lady Helen Edinburgh Evening News, Edinburgh, England; by The Newsroom; 8/28/26 An architect from the University of Stirling has helped design a dementia-friendly apartment for Lady Helen Stewart, wife of former racing champion Sir Jackie Stewart. Lady Helen was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2012 and Sir Jackie has become a passionate campaigner raising millions of pounds for research through his charity Race Against Dementia. The couple celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary today, Friday, August 28. ... Dementia-friendly features in the renovated apartment include: low-level counters to allow Lady Helen to interact and participate in cooking; a see-through and easily accessible fridge; visible open cabinets and front-facing clothing in the bedroom; integrated lighting for personal items; subtle and custom-made medical, cleaning and disinfection areas; and private medical areas for Lady Helen and her care providers.

The sandwich generation confronts the caregiver crunch: Sonia’s story IndiaCurrents; by Snigdha Sen; 8/28/26 The Indian American community is aging. As the U.S. faces a severe caregiver shortage, the community faces an even greater challenge: finding culturally and linguistically appropriate care. The Aging with Dignity project looks at efforts within and beyond the Indian community to help the "sandwich generation" care for aging parents. This is Part 1 of a three-part series.

Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering free Hospice Aide training for qualified applicants sABC-4 WOAY, Beckley, WV; by Brandy Lawrence; 8/26/26 Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering Hospice Aide training at no cost to applicants interested in starting a career caring for hospice patients in their homes and at Bowers Hospice House. Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent, reliable transportation, and complete a WV Cares background check and drug screening. Applications are open now, and training begins on the first day of employment once all pre-employment requirements are completed. Editor's Note: Bravo to Hospice of Southern West Virginia for this innovative, supportive edcuation initiative to address staffing needs for hospice aides. To adapt this for your hospice, examine the CMS Hospice Conditions of Participation: § 418.76 Hospice aide and homemaker services.

Area bereavement coordinator heads group supporting women chaplains Cranberry Eagle; by Marcia Jones-Washington; 8/24/26 It already takes a certain kind of person to perform the work of a chaplain, according to longtime police chaplain Millie Johnson, who said being a woman in the field lends its own challenges to the duties. ... Marcia Jones-Washington, a bereavement coordinator with Good Samaritan Hospice, organized an online networking ministry specifically for women chaplains which meets monthly to discuss topics relating to their work. Johnson has been a regular attendee since its founding in 2022. Jones-Washington said the group allows women to share their experiences in chaplaincy to encourage and support other women with the same calling. ...  After running the online support group for a few months, Jones-Washington took her planning to the real world and organized a conference for women chaplains that is now entering its fourth year.

My grandparents wanted to age at home. Eventually, their care cost $4,000 a week. Business Insider; by Erin Dentmon; 8/25/26 My grandparents lived at home until dying in their 90s in 2024 and 2025. Like many people, they had no desire to leave their shared home at the end of their lives. ... Through great sacrifice, my mom and her siblings worked to make that happen for them. My grandparents, a rural, middle-class couple, benefited from an increasingly unique set of circumstances: Their end-of-life illnesses were relatively short. My grandfather's pension provided financial security. Most importantly, they had six adult children ready to pitch in to make it happen. Even with all of these advantages, caregiving was complicated.

Pittsburgh Caregivers get federal lifeline as dementia cases swell across Allegheny County hoodline; by Ryan Miller; 8/21/26 Caregivers looking after loved ones with dementia in Pittsburgh now have a new federal tool to lean on, and it is already showing up at a day center in Squirrel Hill. The Anathan Club, run by the Jewish Association on Aging, has begun connecting families to the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, a Medicare program that can cover up to $2,500 a year in respite care for qualifying beneficiaries. The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, known as GUIDE, was developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and launched nationwide on July 1, 2024, as an eight-year voluntary pilot running through June 30, 2032, according to CMS. Nearly 390 provider organizations across the country are participating. 

[Israel] Existential suffering at the end of life in long-term care: A critical essay on recognition, dignity, and witnessPalliative Care & Social Practice; by Anat Romem, Rachel Bardach; 7/26Existential suffering is widely acknowledged in palliative care, but it remains inconsistently recognized and unevenly addressed in long-term care. This critical essay argues that the gap is not caused by clinician indifference, but by a persistent mismatch between whole-person ideals and care systems organized around measurable symptoms, risk management, task completion, and professional uncertainty. [This] ... essay identifies three interrelated shortcomings: the reduction of suffering to medically actionable symptoms; the depersonalizing effects of institutional routines on frail older adults; and the absence of shared existential literacy across interdisciplinary teams. The essay also cautions against romanticizing suffering or treating meaning-making as a clinical expectation. It proposes a practical framework of recognition, dignity, and witness: recognizing biography and identity as clinically relevant; protecting dignity in the ordinary details of care; and enacting witness ... Long-term care cannot resolve every existential wound, but it can reduce existential neglect by treating personhood as a core quality indicator of palliative care.

Honoring my daughter's final wishes Substack; by Larry Lehmer; 8/7/26 I own one pink shirt. I wear it once a year, on Feb. 28, my daughter’s birthday. It’s mostly her idea. “Please wear more pink!” she wrote for her husband, Paul, to read at her celebration of life. “To the men — you can pull it off.” It’s been three years since Paul had to deliver Meghan’s final words, at the Des Moines Botanical Garden, the same place where they began their married life 13 years earlier. “I once read ‘Love doesn’t die, people do’,” Meghan wrote. “So when love is all that’s left of me, give me away.” Meghan died on Aug. 8, 2023. It still hurts, of course, but we continue to celebrate her life, her devotion to family and try to honor her dying wish “that we all help each other a little more.” Here’s what I wrote about her in August 2023: ...

AARP is working to root out health care ageism AARP; by Megan O'Reilly; 7/27/26 ... In collaboration with the Gerontological Society of America, AARP launched a training program last year to help future health professionals recognize and stop age-based bias. Tested at 13 universities across the country with about 500 students, the program uses health care scenarios and practical tools that remind providers to listen first and treat people as individuals, not stereotypes. ... Additionally, AARP has pushed for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to allow Medicare to cover essential training for family caregivers. And we fought for a measure to assess hospitals’ commitment to improving care for older patients. We also collaborated with the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative to train ER personnel to recognize dementia symptoms. ...