Living with Death and Dying [Paperback]

In this compassionate and moving guide to communicating with the terminally ill, Dr. Elisabeth Küebler-Ross, the world's foremost expert on death and dying, shares her tools for understanding how the dying convey their innermost knowledge and needs. Expanding on the workshops that have made her famous and loved around the world, she shows us the importance of meaningful dialogue in helping patients to die with peace and dignity.Chapter 1

HOUSE CALLS AND HOSPITAL CALLS: THE CHALLENGE TO HEAR OUR PATIENTS

The material for this book comes from a decade of work with terminally ill adults and children whom we attended in hospitals, nursing homes, and, most important of all, in their own homes.

We have moved from institutional care of the dying to a new and healthier way of caring for them in their own environment; at home they are surrounded by their families and in control of their own needs and wishes, which is almost impossible to achieve in the best of hospitals.

Many of the readers will be familiar with my seminars on death and dying for health professionals in hospitals and the internationally held five-day workshops on life, death, and transition offered to professionals and lay people. These seminars and workshops have given physicians, clergy, counselors, nurses, and volunteers a tool to take back with them to facilitate their interactions with the critically and terminally ill. Our beginnings and lessons from the dying patients have been published inOn Death and DyingandQuestions and Answers on Death and Dying.For those who are not familiar with this material, the first chapters will repeat some of this material in order to present the remainder of the book in a more,comprehensible fashion.

It is important to understand that the material herein is not really new. Yet there are millions of people who still have the illusion that a patient is better off if surrounded with an air of all is well ; thatlsS