“……[W]e — doctors, patients, families — talk around, rather than about, suffering, dignity, living, and dying. We rely on euphemism, silence, and jargon when we most acutely need to be clear and articulate.… this book is my humble attempt to inspire tough but necessary conversations in hopes of easing the suffering associated with the silence around mortality”
Sunita Puri, M.D., That Good Night, p. xiii,
Much has been written the past few years on end of life issues, especially with regard to the issue of the “modern” process of dying. Modern in the sense that thousands of medical advances that didn’t exist 10 or more years ago keep us alive for months, even years, beyond what used to be.
Our resources are divided into five groups:
Organizations. These are more than websites. These organizations have staff, and have members or large donor lists. They all have a particular point of view. The websites they have are usually very robust. Some of them have workbooks for you. Some have suggestions on how to start and conduct conversations. If you have time, poke around in them. There’s a lot more information in them than can be presented here.
Do-It-Yourself. This section has resources to look into if one is interested in hastening your death when you are terminally ill.
Books & Articles. This includes magazine articles too. Most of these books and articles contain stories about end-of-life situations that went bad, leaving the survivors distraught. Most of them give suggestions about how to prevent such tragedies. Some of the books are “how to” manuals, and can be identified by the descriptions given.
Movies & Videos. There are some very good movies about people proceeding through the last stages of life.
Other Advance Directives. This section lists other advance directives, including advance directives for dementia.
These resource pages are in no sense complete. There will be additions from time to time.
Indeed, you can help improve them. If you know of a book, article, movie, video, or on-line web page that you think should be added, please let us know via Contact . We reserve the right to include your suggestion or not.
Extensive recent medical research clearly indicates that with a good lifestyle you can prevent developing Alzheimer’s disease. What life style changes? (As many as you can do; the more, the better.)
This list is taken from a class on prevention given at the San Diego Community Colleges in the fall of 2022. You can get similar information from this YouTube video: Ten tips to prevent Alzheimer's, Melissa Batchelor. There are others.