Literature Review

7 ways palliative care can help people with ATTR-CMEveryday Health; by Abby McCoy, RN; 7/3/26 Transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CM), a rare type of heart failure, can cause symptoms that affect more than just your heart, and many of them can lower your quality of life. But palliative care, or care meant to provide symptom relief, comfort, and support, can help you live better with this condition. ... Here’s how your palliative care team can help you manage life with ATTR-CM and feel your best.

Hospice pinning ceremony honors Margate veteran The Press of Atlantic City; by Haram Shahid; 7/1/26 After celebrating 87 Fourths of July, Vietnam War veteran Tom Misner knows the simple pleasures that make America home: Homemade Italian gravy filled with meatballs and sausage, dairy-free ice cream packed with thick chunks of pecans, and “God Bless America” sung by his music therapist. On Wednesday, days before Independence Day, Misner’s front yard was filled with neighbors, family, hospice staff and even his mail carrier for a pinning ceremony honoring his service in the Navy from 1956 to 1962 and the Army Reserves from 1976 to 1985. The ceremony, organized by NJ Health Hospice, is part of a veteran recognition program that brings end-of-life care into moments of memory, identity and community, focusing not just on medical support but on honoring the lives patients lived before hospice.

Advance Care Planning documentation completeness and end-of-life care: trends and associations using HRS 2010-2022 data American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Zhigang Xie, PhD, MPA, Jiaming Liang, PhD, and Molly Jacobs, PhD, MS; 6/16/26 Objectives: This study examined additive associations between comprehensive advance care planning (ACP) documentation and end-of-life care (EOL) outcomes among older adults in the United States. ...Results: About 42.7% decedents had two documents and 28.9% had none, documentation increased substantially around 2014. ... Associations were stronger among decedents with expected death and attenuated among those with unexpected death.

Remembrance Walk brings grieving families together The Alamosa Citizen, Alamosa, CO; by The Citizen; 6/29/26 A Friday morning breeze came in handy at San Luis Valley’s inaugural Remembrance Walk at Blanca Vista Park. A quiet 1.5-mile Pelican Trail became a place for shared memories, tears, and community healing. Organized by Hospice del Valle, the June 26 event brought together community members from across the Valley, each taking a lap around the lake for someone no longer able to walk beside them. ... Lori Taylor and her family were at the park to celebrate her mother, Judy, who passed away in December. Even though her mother was in hospice care for a single day, Taylor said the nonprofit’s grief support groups made a massive difference for her family.

2 Ann Arbor nurses who transformed how people die mentored her. Then, she became their caregiver.MLive.com, Ann Arbor, MI; by Jennifer Eberback; 6/28/26 For in-home private caregiver Kathy Hopps, caring for two trailblazers who helped revolutionize in-home nursing and hospice care in their final days of life brought her journey full circle. Hopps cared for Ingrid Deininger, who co-founded Individualized Home Nursing Care (IHNC) in Ann Arbor in the early 1980s when hospice and in-home care did not yet have the presence in the U.S. as it does today. ... Now she cares for Lois Jelneck, another IHNC founder who is currently under hospice care at the age of 97.

Flying high: A Rainbow veteran’s late-life adventure Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, WI; by Kenyon Kemnitz, Rainbow Community Care; 6/24/26 [The story of a 98 year-old veteran in hospice care going on an Honor Flight to Washington DC.] Behind the scenes, the Rainbow [hospice] staff balanced rigorous clinical planning with deep emotional support. Amanda served as the clinical anchor for the mission. Initially, there were discussions about postponing his flight until May, but Raduege advocated for keeping the timeline the same. She coordinated with the Honor Flight’s specialized medical team and ensured that every potential health variable was addressed long before takeoff. ... The Honor Flight carried over 80 veterans, but Weber was the patriarch of the group. ... Throughout the day, he was accompanied by his own personal medic, an EMT named Travis, who stayed by his side, providing a continuous blanket of clinical safety and companionship.

South Shore Stitchers’ compassion touches hospice patients’ lives Ocean City Sentinel; Tuckahoe, NJ; 6/24/26  The South Shore Stitchers Quilt Guild, based at Tuckahoe United Methodist Church, is a dedicated service‑focused group of talented volunteers who share a passion for quilting and community outreach. Through countless hours of creative and thoughtful work, the guild creates comfort quilts, fidget blankets, walker bags, adult bibs, and other handmade items designed to bring reassurance, dignity, and warmth to those in need. Their handcrafted creations support health care organizations, first responders, and community groups — helping to calm, support, and comfort hospice patients, children, and individuals living with dementia. They have partnered with NJHealth Hospice and Palliative Care to provide comfort for patients.

Grief experiences among LGBTQ+ populations: a scoping review BMC Palliative Care; by Tamara Rodríguez Pérez, Cristo Manuel Marrero González, Alfonso Miguel García Hernández; 6/23/26 Objective: To explore research published between 2021 and 2026 on grief and bereavement-related experiences among LGBTQ+ adults in healthcare and palliative care settings, identifying the main topics addressed and knowledge gaps relevant to clinical practice. Results: ... Four main themes were identified: minority stress, complexities of disclosure, disenfranchised grief, and gaps in professional training. Critical gaps included underrepresentation of transgender people, a scarcity of quantitative data, an absence of intersectional perspectives, and concentration in Western contexts.

End of life nurse appeals for homemade property bags Nursing In Practice; by Gee Harland; 6/17/26 An end of life nurse is leading an initiative to return patient belongings to families in homemade bags. Lead nurse Debbie Williams at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was struck by how ‘awful’ she felt carrying her mother’s belongings home from hospital in a plastic bag after her death in 2014. She was inspired to start an appeal calling for homemade bags to be donated to replace the plastic patient bags – noting how it is the ‘simple things that make the difference.

I was my mother's caregiver until her death. Four years later, I'm still struggling with the $17,000 medical debt. yahoo!finance; by Julie Peck; 6/20/26 My mom got sick, then gradually, and then all at once. In 2014, she survived a subarachnoid aneurysm that ruptured while she was driving on the West Virginia Turnpike. After stabilizing, she spent six months recovering with me in South Carolina before heading back to her townhouse in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. Unfortunately, her return was short-lived. Mom had a small stroke a year later, followed by a second, more serious stroke in 2016. The doctors told her it was no longer safe to live alone.

When the right end-of-life care is hardest to access MedPageToday's KevinMD.com; by Denise Mohess, MD; 6/17/26 The cost of health care in America is extraordinarily high, too often funding the wrong type of care. As a geriatric medicine and palliative care physician, I sit with patients and families making end-of-life decisions, weighing life-prolonging measures, optimizing quality of life, defining what matters most to them. Recently, a 100-year-old man with severe dementia, limited mobility, hearing impairment, requiring assistance for his daily needs, was admitted to the hospital with worsening weakness. ... At a time when care should have eased suffering, the system instead added to it, as the care that best honored his wishes was the hardest to access.

The family caregiver experience in palliative care pathways: a multidimensional framework BMC Health Services Research; by Marzia Cettina Severino, Costanza Galli and Sabina De Rosis; 6/16/26 Family caregivers play an essential role across the life course of people, especially in delicate moments as the end-of-life, playing a central role in supporting and caring for terminal patients. Exploring the experience of family caregivers along this pathway is crucial to ensure a respectful, person-centered and high-quality experience with healthcare services, not only for patients but also for their caregivers. This study aimed to develop and validate collaboratively a multidimensional framework to explore the global experience of family caregivers across the palliative care pathways, through a multi-step participatory process involving professionals and caregivers.

The pain of caring for a parent who abused youDNYUZ; 6/16/26 It started in January 2024, with a call from her father’s eye doctor. Did Carole know that Andre was still driving, even though his vision was so poor? Even though it was illegal to drive with eyesight so bad? Well, no, she didn’t; she made a point not to know this sort of thing about her father. Also, she didn’t really care. Still, Carole drove to his house, on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, Calif., down long dirt roads surrounded by vineyards. ... And there was her father, 93, standing by the front door, on that filthy rug, next to the maroon-colored walker that he hated to use. Looking small, looking weathered. ...