Advance Care Planning / End of Life

You may remember back in March of this year, agebuzz Guest Blogger Susanna Barton wrote a post on Getting Write: Pen Your Obituary, Plan Your Funeral. In that post, she provided useful information as to how to consider drafting an obituary for yourself and why such an act would be…

The evidence firmly exists that music plays an important role in almost everyone’s life, and for older adults, it can help support healthy brain aging and build cognitive reserve. We also have evidence of the therapeutic value of music in helping patients to recover from illness or to endure difficult…

Survey results of Americans have remained consistent over many years. In August of 2024, the Gallup Organization reported that just over 7 out of every 10 Americans believe that doctors “should be allowed by law to end the patient’s life by some painless means if the patient and his or…

There’s never been a moment in history when people have lived longer, and there’s likely never been a moment in history when so many people, especially older people, have lived alone. According to a recent post by journalist Judith Graham writing for Kaiser Family Foundation Health News, more than 16…

None of us leaves this world alive, and as Dame Cicely Saunders once said, “How people die remains in the memory of those who live on.” We are therefore fortunate to live in an era when the option of having a “death doula” has become more commonplace in helping individuals…

One year ago, President Jimmy Carter made the important decision to transfer to hospice care, rather than continue the cycle of intermittent acute-care hospitalizations that kept him away from home and apart from his dear wife Rosalynn. Not only was this a highly personal decision for him and his family,…