Literature Review

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.

Aging Luzerne County prison population cited as challenge The Dallas Post; by Jennifer Learn-Andes; 8/22/26 During recent legislative testimony about crime trends, Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo highlighted the aging prison population as a concern that must be addressed. Older inmates with “escalating chronic health needs” are contributing to rising medical costs and challenging a prison staff “increasingly called upon to manage geriatric and end-of-life care in a setting never designed for it,” she told the Senate Majority Policy Committee and House Republican Policy Committee at a hearing earlier this month in Hazleton. “Corrections officers are trained for security, not hospice care,” Crocamo told the legislators, emphasizing “graying behind bars” is an emerging issue statewide. 

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. 

In a recent study, most oncologists chose not to assist patients in dying Cancer Therapy Advisor; by Jason L. Harris; 8/19/26 Most oncologists asked to consult with a terminally ill patient seeking medical aid in dying (MAID) choose to opt out, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. In a California-based study, researchers found high rates of oncologists opting out, forcing many patients to pursue MAID with physicians they did not know. Further, a small number of physicians were responsible for most MAID-related prescriptions. “Our dataset likely underestimates these challenges, as it only includes patients who successfully found an attending physician and does not capture instances when opt-out was not documented,” the researchers added.

If you lost a spouse/domestic partner in recent weeks read this today AfterTalk; by Larry Lynn; 8/17/26 I remember when I lost my first wife 30+ years ago, and recall how unprepared I was to deal with financial issues in the moment. I made mistakes that cost me later, so let me keep this simple. ... 

Healing thyself: managing moral injury in healthcare Psychology Today; by Wendy L. Patrick, JD, MDiv, PhD; 8/16/26 Key Points

Dad demands answers after daughter dies of rare cancer: why are so many kids getting sick in this community? (exclusive)People; by Wendy Grossman Kantor; 8/14/26Lilly Dalton grew up a few miles from Ladera Ranch, where at least a dozen young people and children have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma. Three days after graduating from college at Loyola University in New Orleans, Lilly Dalton told her parents her stomach hurt. Doctors found a tumor on the 21-year-old’s liver and she was diagnosed with a very rare, one-of-a-kind cancer. Lilly was raised in Laguna Niguel, a city in Orange County, Calif. — just six miles from Ladera Ranch, where 12 children and young adults have been diagnosed with another rare cancer, Ewing sarcoma. “That’s not a coincidence,” says her father, Brian Dalton, 49, who now lives in Meridian, Idaho, with Lilly’s mom, Nicole Dalton, 50. 

My husband was kicked out of hospice for dying too slowly. Here's what I learned about navigating hospice care. CBS News; by Kim Clark; 8/13/26 It was mid-January 2026, and my then-73-year-old husband, Mike Salmon, had just started bouncing back from a three-month ordeal of three operations related to aortic aneurysms, sepsis, and a terrifying descent into delirium tied to a stay in the intensive care unit. ... Abruptly, we were shunted onto hospice care — the dead-end spur of the American medical system. ... Mike joined that select group. His experience in and out of the hospice system revealed surprising lessons about how families can manage care. And getting removed from hospice revealed a little-known process that can represent a welcome respite for families like ours — but can be devastating for patients with serious chronic illnesses. Here's what we learned in our four months on and off hospice. ...  

Hospice physician: pain management growing more complex for families Hospice News; by James Warda; 8/7/26  When a patient starts to receive hospice care, families often expect to focus on making memories, finding comfort and spending meaningful time together. However, many instead find themselves making frantic phone calls to multiple pharmacies, driving across town to locate medications, or waiting days for prescriptions that should be readily available, with a patient in need at home. According to the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s (AAHPM) Board of Directors Secretary, Dr. Michael Barnett, a hospice physician and former inpatient palliative care physician, this growing challenge is becoming an all-too-common part of end-of-life care.

LATE vs Alzheimer’s: Biomarkers, Mixed Dementia, and Clinical Realities with Nate Chin and Sterling Johnson GeriPal; podcast by GeriPal with Sterling Johnson and Nate Chin; 8/6/26 Up until just a couple years ago, an 85-year-old patient presenting with gradual, amnestic memory loss was almost automatically presumed to have Alzheimer’s disease. However, new biomarkers and the recognition of conditions like Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE) are reshaping our understanding of cognitive decline in older adults. It’s looking more clear that pure Alzheimer's dementia is rare in older adults, and co-occurring pathologies that may include Alzheimer’s, LATE, Lewy Body, and vascular neuropatholigies, are the rule rather than the exception. ... Sterling Johnson is a clinical neuropsychologist and researcher who leads the CLARiTI study, which is attempting to uncover the intersecting causes of dementia.  Nate Chin is the medical director and Clinical Core Co-Leader for the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), the host of the Dementia Matters podcast, and author of a new book When Memory Fades.  

Hospice of Western Ky. hosts largest Camp Erin for grieving youthThe Messenger, Owensboro, KY; by The Messenger Staff; 8/4/26Hospice of Western Kentucky recently welcomed 55 children to its largest Camp Erin to date, providing a free overnight camp experience for young people grieving the loss of a loved one, according to a release. The camp was held July 31 through Aug. 2 at Gasper River Catholic Youth Camp and Retreat Center in Bowling Green. This marked the fifth year Hospice of Western Kentucky has hosted Camp Erin for children ages 6 to 17. Camp Erin is offered at no cost to families through support from Eluna, Hospice of Western Kentucky and the New York Life Foundation, the release stated.

What hospice care really means to a grieving familyKevinMD.com; by Ton La, Jr., MD, JD; 8/3/26Before my grandfather entered hospice, I believed it was where physicians sent patients to die. I saw it as the end of treatment, a quiet admission that medicine had given up. It was only through watching my grandfather’s final years that I came to understand hospice differently: not as the abandonment of care, but as one of its most compassionate forms. ... On Christmas morning, my uncle called to tell me my grandfather had fallen into a coma. His physicians urged us to say our goodbyes. When I arrived, the room was filled with family members offering prayers, and our rabbi came. Sitting beside him, I held his hand and prayed with everyone else. He passed away, and my entire world fell apart. ...   

Hospice doctor reveals the loved ones who will visit and those who won’t in your final dreams Upworthy; by Cecily Knobler; 8/1/26 “They had a pivotal role in the formation of who you were.” ... Hospice physician and neurologist Dr. Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast to discuss his experiences with people as they neared their last breath. After interviewing over 1,500 patients described as being in “lucid” mental states, he has discovered a common theme among the memories of their dreams. ... “End-of-life experiences testify to our greatest need to love and be loved, ... To be nurtured and feel connected. To be remembered and forgiven. They provide continuity between and across lives. ... The most common thing they would dream about is seeing their deceased loved ones. And it wasn’t just anybody. It was those that loved and secured the most. So there’s almost this form of final justice. If somebody withheld love, one parent, they were excluded, but the one who nurtured and loved and secured was included.”