Advance Care Planning / End of Life

Everyone knows you should, yet so many of you haven’t- haven’t filled out an advance directive, that is. Talking with your loved ones, conferring with your doctors and figuring out what treatments or plans you want in place for the end of your life is essential: for you, for your…

Perhaps this is a taboo topic, but to anyone concerned about the environment, it’s important to understand how current funeral practices are resource wasteful and even toxic to the environment. And in response, there is now a growing ecologically-driven death care industry that looks to create new funeral rituals for…

You may never have heard of Vice News, but it’s likely your kids and grandkids have. It’s a news source that, through edgy video and visual material, covers the news and often focuses on what it considers underreported topics. Very recently Vice News produced a 10 minute video piece on The Business…

Physicians have historically been uncomfortable initiating conversations about end-of-life care with their patients. Such communication requires tact, sensitivity and, of course, time. In 2016, however, physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were given the authority to bill Medicare to conduct these challenging discussions, thus allowing providers to carve out discreet time…

Continuing the theme of conversations with physicians about health care decision making, especially at the end of life: such advance care planning becomes all the more complex and challenging when there’s no clear person to step in to be a surrogate decision maker should something happen to you. Typically, patients…

For many of us, it’s our worst nightmare: to be desperately ill with no end in sight and no way to relieve the suffering. While a few states are wrestling with the concept of physician-assisted death, that involves a complex legal system of checks and balances to ensure that only…