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A site about death, dying, grief, and loss; about caregiving or living with chronic or life-threatening illness; and about positive and realistic approaches to aging. Reading up on end-of-life activities often surprises people, kick-starting their interest in activities that are better done before they are nearly pushing up daisies. Even bereavement and loss may help us grow. And there are links to practical advice here for each step along the way.
What to do and not do
(and sometimes how or how not to do it)Matt Pearce (a Los Angeles Times reporter) tweeted: "I imagine all the closures and cancellations give people a sense of ominousness. But it's really an amazing act of social solidarity: We're sacrificing so we can give nurses, doctors and hospitals a fighting chance. Start from there and hopefully we can figure out the rest."
• Answers to frequently asked questions about COVID-19 (Harvard Health Publishing) Including What are the symptoms? What should I do if I feel sick? If a loved one gets it, how do I care for them? How do I keep from getting it?
• Disinfecting surfaces:
---The Most Effective Ways to Kill Coronavirus in Your Home (Robert Preidt, HealthDay reporter on WebMD, 3-18-2020) "An important general rule is that you shouldn't immediately wipe a cleaning solution off as soon as you've applied it to a surface. Let it sit there long enough to kill viruses first," Donald Schaffner said in a university news release. "Natural chemicals such as vinegar and tea tree oil are not recommended for fighting coronaviruses."
---"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends daily disinfection of often-touched surfaces such as tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets and sinks, as well as the use of detergent or soap and water on dirty surfaces prior to disinfection.
---CDC: Unexpired household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted. Prepare a bleach solution by mixing 5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) bleach per gallon of water.
---WebMD: You can dilute alcohol with water or aloe vera to make hand sanitizer) but be sure to keep an alcohol concentration of around 70% to kill coronaviruses. Pure (96%) alcohol evaporates too quickly for such use.
--- Cleaning And Disinfecting Your Home (CDC, 2019)
--- Make CDC-Approved Disinfecting Wipes (DIY, 4-7-2020) 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water
--- DIY Homemade Disinfectant Wipes (Clorox wipes) (MamaInTheKitchen)
--- DIY Disinfectant Wipes (Mitisha P's version, also made with Clorox)
--- KILL COVID - DIY Disinfectant Wipes made with with Bleach or Alcohol (Clueless Mama DIY)
--- How to Make Disinfectant Spray at Home Using CDC and WHO Methods (NOTaboutaMEn)
• Running Essential Errands (CDC) Grocery Shopping, Take-Out, Banking, Getting Gas, and Doctor Visits. To protect yourself when getting your prescriptions:
---Call in prescription orders ahead of time. (Or ask if they can mail your order--special dispensation during the pandemic.)
---Use drive-thru windows, curbside services, mail-order, or other delivery services.
---Try to make one trip, picking up all medicine at the same time. During this time, you may also want to contact your Medicare prescription drug plan to see if they've temporarily waived certain requirements to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 — like waiving prescription refill limits or relaxing restrictions on home or mail delivery of prescription drugs.
• Sanitizing Amazon boxes, taking Uber and getting food properly during the coronavirus pandemic (Kim Komando, USA Today, 4-3-2020)
• Safety Advice If You Must Visit the Grocery Store (Sumathi Reddy, Wall Street Journal, 4-3-2020) Deliveries are safer during the coronavirus pandemic, but sometimes a store visit is unavoidable. Here are the precautions to take.
• When and how to use masks (WHO, Advice for the public)
• 'Under No Circumstance': Lysol Maker, Officials Reject Trump's Disinfectant Idea (Colin Dwyer, NPR, 4-24-2020) After hearing about research reflecting the disinfectant capabilities of ultraviolet light on surfaces, Trump mused that scientists might try to find a way to place strong disinfectants directly inside the body to treat a patient's infection.
As many experts have stated since horrified expressions crossed faces all over the country, THIS IS A HORRIBLE, DEADLY IDEA. Reported Domenico Montanaro of NPR on 4-25: ’"With the president facing criticism for seemingly thinking out loud behind the lectern at these briefings, floating untested ideas, Friday’s session was cut short to just over 20 minutes. Axios reported that the president may reduce the length of them or not appear daily....advisers to the president, in and out of the White House, reportedly think these briefings are hurting his image." Indeed.
• Myth Busters (World Health Organizations) Things that are not true about covid 19.
• Stories of Hope (The Obama Foundation) Tell us about the stories—big and small—that are lifting your spirits.
• COVID-19 - Some Drug-Related Issues (The Medical Letter)
• COVID-19 Loan and Relief Resources for Small Businesses (Gusto editors) Click on "COVID-19 Relief Resources for Small Businesses" to get updated spreadsheet.
• Trump's mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis (Dan Diamond, Politico, 3-7-2020) Current and former administration officials blame the president for creating a no-bad-news atmosphere that stifled attempts to combat the outbreak. Fortunately, we're learning to listen to Dr. Fauci instead of Trump.
• Not His First Epidemic: Dr. Anthony Fauci Sticks to the Facts (Denise Grady, NY Times, 3-9-2020) Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, is widely respected for his ability to explain science without talking down to his audience and to correct the president. See also “I Have No Ideology. My Ideology Is Health”: Dr. Anthony Fauci on the Tactics of Dealing With the Novel Coronavirus—And Trump (Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair, 3-31-2020) “We are by no means out of the woods,” Fauci says. But his insistence on facts, and science, may be finally changing the trajectory of the pandemic.
• The Use of Bleach (Hong Kong health department during SARS crisis). Bleach is a good disinfectant but it's dangerous if misused. Follow instructions!
• Interim Guidance for Responding to COVID-19 among People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness Key actions that local and state health departments, homelessness service systems, housing authorities, emergency planners, healthcare facilities, and homeless outreach services can take to protect people experiencing homelessness from the spread of COVID-19.
• Whether planned surgery should proceed (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). Determining essential vs. elective surgery. "At all times, the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), hospital and intensive care unit beds, and ventilators should be considered, even in areas that are not currently dealing with COVID-19 infections."
• Does Everyone Over 60 Need to Take the Same Coronavirus Precautions? (Judith Graham, KHN, 3-24-2020) If you’re going to the store, consider wearing cloth gloves, because viruses don’t survive as well on soft surfaces. Try not to handle your smartphone when you’re out of the house. “A phone is a hard plastic surface that can easily get contaminated,” she said. Are you frail? Answer these questions:
F: Are you consistently fatigued?
R, for resilience: Can you climb a flight of stairs?
A, for aerobic: Can you walk a block?
I, for illnesses: If you’ve got five or more, that’s bad.
L, for loss of weight: That’s not good.”
If you answer yes to three or more of those questions, you should be “really careful and self-isolate,” Morley said. ...even healthy people are becoming sick.
• Life on Lockdown in China (Peter Hessler, Letter from Chengdu, New Yorker, 3-30-2020) Forty-five days of avoiding the coronavirus. 'There seems to be a brief window—perhaps two or three days—when people are infectious but not yet showing symptoms. Gabriel Leung, the dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, told me that he believes between twenty and forty per cent of infections come from people who don’t yet seem sick. “They could be spreading it through droplets, say during eating or speaking,” he said. “These droplets could contaminate surfaces, and this is how it spreads.”' [Not touching your face is the critical preventive step--that plus washing your hands when you've touched possibly contaminated surfaces.]
• U.S. Health Workers Responding to Coronavirus Lacked Training and Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says (Emily Cochrane, Noah Weiland and Margot Sanger-Katz, NY Times, 2-27-2020) Team members were not properly trained, lacked necessary gear and moved freely around and off military bases where Americans were quarantined, a whistleblower complains.
• How prepared are you for disaster? Sites geared to helping you prepare for hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and flash floods, and to increase child and campus security. Many of the steps are helpful in a pandemic.
• Help fight Medicare fraud (Medicare.gov) Guard your Medicare card like it’s a credit card.
• Why Texas is so far behind other states on virus response(Politico, 3-18-2020) Texas leaders have been reluctant to set restrictions conservative voters might consider draconian and business leaders oppose. They’ve also opposed steps to expand health insurance coverage. The state, which didn’t expand Medicaid, has the highest uninsured rate in the country, meaning millions of people don’t have doctors to call if they show symptoms.
• What am I supposed to do about my fundraising event: Event planning and COVID-19: (Vimeo video, Laura Pierce of Washington Nonprofit and Rebecca Zanatta of Ostara Group, a nonprofit consulting group) Cancel? or something else?
• Worries about medical bills and lost pay may hamper coronavirus efforts in the United States (Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, 3-2-2020) The race to curb the spread of the new coronavirus could be thwarted by Americans fearful of big medical bills if they get tested, low-income workers who lose pay if they take time off when sick, and similar dilemmas that leave the United States more vulnerable to the epidemic than countries with universal health coverage and sturdier safety nets. As the test for the virus becomes more widely available, health-care experts predict that some people with flu-like illnesses — or those who may have been exposed — will avoid finding out whether they have been infected because they are uninsured or have health plans that saddle them with much of the cost of their care.
• These Common Household Products Can Destroy the Novel Coronavirus (Consumer Reports) On surfaces, that is, and why you need to clean using the right stuff. Soap and water is right up there with disinfectants.
• Tipsheet for Journalists: Covering the Coronavirus Epidemic Effectively without Spreading Misinformation (Laura Helmuth, TheOpenNotebook, 3-2-2020) See tip sheets for journalists below.
• Avoid cruise ships, says State Department (Noah Weiland and Maggie Haberman, NY Times, 3-9-2020) “Absolutely don’t get on a cruise ship,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has overseen epidemics for decades at NIH/NIAID.
• Coronavirus: Fake health advice you should ignore (BBC News, 3-8-2020) Drinking water every 15 minutes (and eating garlic) cannot kill the virus. You should remain well-hydrated, however.
• I.O.C.’s Reassurance About the Tokyo Olympics Rankles Some Athletes (NY Times, 3-18-2020) Some athletes on a conference call about whether to cancel the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in July were left dumbfounded when an athlete representative from Europe made a comment playing down the severity of the virus and blaming the news media for hyping its risks. The I.O.C. is insisting the games will go on; the athletes are worried about the health risk. (In late March the games were postponed a year.)
• What you need to know about the coronavirus (Washington Post, 3-3-2020)
• Online training as a weapon to fight the new coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2-7-2020) This free learning resource is available to anyone interested in novel coronavirus on WHO’s open learning platform for emergencies, OpenWHO.org.
• Here Is What a WHO Global Health Emergency Means (Washington Post) While the recommendations aren’t enforceable, there’s considerable pressure for countries to abide by the WHO’s advisories.
• You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus (James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 2-24-2020) Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain. (WHO)
• Basic protective measures against the new coronavirus (ANSInet, 2-29-2020)
• Growing Concerns Of Coronavirus Should Spur Plans – Not Panic – In The Workplace (Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News, 2-28-2020)
• World experts and funders set priorities for COVID-19 research (WHO, 2-12-2020)
CATEGORIES, in alphabetical order
See also Subjects/sections within categories
• Advance directives, living wills, and other practical matters Wills, trusts, and other aspects of end-of-life decision making
• Aging with grace Enjoying the golden years
• Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia and memory loss
• Autism spectrum disorders Autism, Asperger's syndrome, savant syndrome, and others
• The Beneficial Effects of Life Story and Legacy Activities
• Bereavement, grief, and recovery
• Blog posts on this website, Index of (by category)
• Books and film to help you make it through the night (Recommended reading, viewing, and listening
• Cardiovascular disease and prevention (Heart and coronary conditions and care)
• Caregivers, caregiving, long-term care and caregiver burnout
• Charitable giving and volunteering (and donating your body or body parts)
• Coping with cancer
• Coping with chronic, rare, and invisible diseases and disorders
• Death, dying, and end-of-life care
• Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other forms of mental illness
• Difficult endings (including suicide and homicide, especially gun violence)
• Disability
• Downsizing, decluttering, moving, and other hard-to-face realities
• Drugs, surgery, procedures, tests, and medical care
• Eulogies and video tributes (celebrating a life)
• Funerals, cremation, home funerals, green burial, memorial services (plus cemeteries, coffins, headstones, memorials)
• Helping a dying friend (and ways to help the dying)
• HIPAA, electronic health records, patient privacy and safety
• Hospice care and palliative care (end-of-life care--to comfort, not to cure)
• How storytelling can aid in healing
• Life story writing (the healing powers of narrative)
• Long-term care and long-term care insurance
• Managing living arrangements for elderly and disabled (home-based and facility-based housing and care options, helpful devices and supports)
• Managing your health, pain, and health care costs (plus hospitals, ER, urgent care, and hospitalization)
• Medical mysteries, patient and caregiver stories, infections and infectious diseases
• Music for funerals, wakes, and memorial services
• Obituaries and other forms of tribute
• Order DYING, A BOOK OF COMFORT
• Prayers, poems, and meditations
• Recommended reading, viewing, and listening
• Reducing medical errors
• Reforming the U.S. health care system (understanding the issues reform must address)
• Retirement 101
• Selections from DYING, A BOOK OF COMFORT
• Single payer and other models for health care financing
• Social Security and veterans benefits, pensions, and annuities
• The stages of grief
• Substance abuse and recovery (and other forms of addiction)
• Writing an ethical will (a legacy letter)
• Vaccines and vaccinations (immunization)
• Index of site
• Order DYING, A BOOK OF COMFORT
Advance directives, living wills, Medicare, and other practical matters
---Getting your affairs in order
---Advance directives, POLSTs, MOLSTs, living wills, health care (medical) proxies
---Wills, trusts, legacies, and estates
---Documents and information to keep together, easily findable (personal, financial, and legal)
---Documents to protect your and your survivors' rights and wishes
---End-of-life planning and document storage sites
---Planning for long-term care and end-of-life preferences
---Financial planning 101
---Your literary estate
---Planning, handling, and protecting your digital estate
---Eldercare planning resources
---Elder law, elder protection, and pension rights organizations
---Preventing elder abuse and scams (and being aware of senior guardianship problems)
---End of life planning for pets
Aging with grace
---Enjoying lifelong learning (MOOCs, OLLI, Great Courses, TED talks, and the like)
---Reminiscence, life review, and life storytelling
---Managing modern life (and electronics)
---Facing tough issues
---Connection? or loneliness?
---Traveling in retirement (and otherwise)
---The new landscape of intimate relationships
---Managing a healthy weight
---Exercise
---Preventing falls
---Preventing and dealing with frailty
---Nutrition
---Memory
---Cognitive skills and development
---Bladder control and related problems
---Knee replacement and other fixes for body parts
---Research on aging
---Books and movies about our new peer group
---If I had my life to live over
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia and memory loss
---Alzheimer's disease
---Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
---Lewy body dementia
---Dementia signs, symptoms, testing and diagnosis
---Dementia support groups and research organizations
---Blogs about dementia
---Helpful books about dementia
---Films, documentaries, and shorts about dementia[Back to Top]
Bereavement, grief, and recovery
---How to comfort the grieving
---Grieving the loss of a child
---Children's grief
---Books about grieving the loss of a child
---Grieving the loss of a pet
---Grief support groups
---Complicated and disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss
---Death, dying, and grief in the age of social media
---Grief, bereavement, and mourning blogs, sites, forums, and online discussion groups
---Selections about grief and recovery (from Pat's anthology, Dying: A Book of Comfort)
---Understanding bereavement, grief, and recovery
Books and films to help you make it through the night
• Children's books about death and loss
• Movies about aging
• Movies about death and dying, loss and grief
• Fiction about aging, illness, and dementia
• Recommended reading lists on this website
• Stories of courage, inspiration, and other coping attitudes
• Just plain interesting!
BOOKS AND RECOMMENDED READING
---Aging and elders, books and movies about
---Aging, illness, and dementia, Books about
---Cancer, Books about
---Caregivers and caregiving, Books by, for, and about
---Caregiving for elders, Books about
---Chronic or invisible diseases and conditions, Books about
---Complex and difficult endings (A reading list)
---Death, dying, loss, and grief, Books for adults about
---Death and loss, Children's picture books about
---Dementia, Books about
---Ethical wills (legacy letters), Books to help you write
---Family-directed funerals, Books and stories about
---Grieving the loss of a child, Books about
---Heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular disease, Books and other resources about
---Medical reference shelf, For your
---Medical reference books, general
---Medical and healthcare professionals, Books about the work and lives of
---Medicine, health care, and caregiving, Books on -- for patients and caregivers
---Suicide (and surviving a suicide), Books about
---Traveling with limited mobility and other disabilities, Books about Vaccines and immunization, Books about
Books and movies about aging, illness, disability
---Books and movies about aging and elders
---Films about aging
---Fiction about aging, illness, and dementia
---Memoirs of coping with chronic, rare, or invisible diseases, including mental health
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (organized by category)
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (organized by authors' last name)
---Books about chronic or invisible diseases and conditions
---Books about cancer
---Healing: Stories of courage, inspiration, and other coping attitudes (short pieces, online)
---Helpful books about dementia
---Books by, for, and about caregivers and caregiving
---Books on medicine, health care, and caregiving -- for patients and caregivers
---For your medical reference shelf
Books and movies about death and dying, grief and loss
---Best adult books about death, dying, loss, and grief
---Books about grieving the loss of a child
---Children's picture books about death and loss
---Movies about death, dying, funerals, farewells, departures
Cardiovascular disease (and prevention)
---General information about cardiovascular health and disease
---Preventing and surviving heart attacks
---Preventing, treating, and surviving strokes
---Heart disease in women
---Heart surgery
---Pros and cons of various tests, treatments, habits
---The statin wars
---Hypertension and blood pressure issues
---Evidence-based cardiovascular care
---Eminence-based medicine
---Books and other resources about heart, stroke, and other cardiovascular disease
Caregivers, caregiving, long-term care, and caregiver burnout
---Caring for patients with dementia
---Caring for caregivers (preventing caregiver burnout)
---Online communities for caregivers
---Other helpful organizations
---Key documents caregivers may need
---Books by, for, and about caregivers
---Books about caregiving for elders
---Books about medicine and healthcare--to help patients and caregivers understand the professionals they will depend on
---General medical reference books
Charitable giving and volunteering
(and donating your body or body parts)
---Volunteering
---Charity ratings
---Tips on charitable giving
---Rethinking charity
---Teaching the next generation about giving
---Practicing philanthropy: giving to make a difference
---Worst practices in charity world
---Donating your body or body parts
---Organ and tissue transplants
COPING WITH CANCER
---Books about cancer
---Memoirs about struggling with cancer
---General information and approaches to treatment
---Avoiding overtreatment or unnecessary and possibly harmful treatment
---Chemotherapy
---Immunotherapy
---Fighting cancer by eating the right food
---Tools for coping
---Cancer research, education, and advocacy organizations
---Researching cancer (where to look for info and advice)
---Cancer support groups
---Finding support for the family
---Finding financial support for cancer care
---Make-a-Wish and other wish fulfillment organizations
---Comforting a person who has cancer
---Finding hospitals and cancer centers
---Cancer by the numbers (e.g., survival rates, incidence)
---Checking out clinical trials
---Understanding the debate on cancer-related health care reform and health policy
---Types of cancer, sites listing and describing
---Specific types of cancer
---Bone cancer
---Brain tumors, brain cancer, and aneurysms (no, aneurysms aren't cancers)
---Breast cancer
---Colon and colorectal cancer
---Kidney cancer
---Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood cancers
---Lung cancer
---Melanoma and other skin cancers
---Multiple myeloma
---Ovarian, cervical, and other gynecological/reproductive system cancers
---Pancreatic cancer
---Prostate cancer
---Rare types of cancer
[Back to Top]
Coping with chronic, rare, and invisible diseases and disorders
---Rare and undiagnosed diseases and conditions
---Memoirs of coping with chronic, rare, or invisible diseases, including mental health problems
---Orphan drugs: the good, the bad, and the greedy
---Helpful resources, including organizations
---Support groups for patients with chronic, rare, and invisible diseases and disorders
---Coping with invisible chronic illnesses and conditions
Death, dying, and end-of-life care
---Improving end-of-life care
---Practical aspects of end-of-life care and decision-making
---Saying goodbye
---When is someone legally dead?
---End-of-life planning and choices for pets
---Complex and difficult endings--suicide, homicide, physician-assisted suicide, violence (including domestic violence), sudden death (from accidents and otherwise), dementia and other forms of lingering illness
---Books about death and dying (including the "good death" and dying with dignity)
---Hospice care and palliative care (don't wait too late!)
---Bereavement, grief, and recovery
---Stages of grief ("The only way out is through.")
---Selections from DYING: A Book of Comfort
---Near-death experiences (crossing over)
---Death Cafes (events, not venues--conversations about end-of-life concerns)
---Conversations about dying
---Statistics about death, mortality, long-term care, hospice care, and palliative care
---Movies about death and dying
---Order DYING: A Book of Comfort
---Funerals, cremation, home funerals, green burial, memorial services
---Music for funerals and memorial services
[Back to Top]
Depression and other forms of mental illness
Including bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), OCD, schizophrenia, and PTSD
---General help and information
---Approaches to treatment
---The system: Issues affecting the treatment of mental illness
---ADHD, ADD, and other problems with inconsistent (sometimes hyperfocused) attention
---Anxiety and phobias
---Bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness)
---Borderline personality disorder
---Children's mental health
---Cutting and self-harm
---Depression, including Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
---Eating disorders
---Marcissistic personality disorder
---Obsessive-compulsive disorder (O.C.D.),
including hoarding behavior
---Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
---Schizophrenia
---Substance abuse
---Mental health organizations
Difficult endings
---End-of-life decision-making
---End-of-life decision-making in the critical care unit
---Death with dignity (assisted-dying laws, etc.)
---Assisted dying and VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking)
---Euthanasia (physician-assisted dying)
---Suicide and suicide prevention
---Books about suicide (and surviving a suicide)
---Helpful organizations and online resources
---Useful general links
---How to tell children their parent is dying
---Grieving the loss of a child
---Complex and Difficult Endings: A Reading List
Disability
---Blogs and websites about traveling with disability
---Changing attitudes about disability
---Traveling with limited mobility and other disabilities
---The legal and financial aspects of living with a disability
---Organizations that help artists with disabilities
---Memoirs about living with a disability
ON ANOTHER PAGE:
---Assistive devices, remodeling, and other ways to enable independent living
Downsizing, decluttering, moving, and other hard-to-face realities
---Downsizing and decluttering (letting go of things)
---Organizing and dealing with things and information
---Selling or recycling books, etc.
---Selling and renting stuff online
---Recycling electronics and other stuff
---Evaluating your "valuables"
---Garage, estate, and yard sales, etc.
---Giving your stuff to a good cause
---Senior move managers and other specialists
---Cleaning and household tips
---Being, or trying to help, a hoarder
Drugs, surgery, procedures, and medical care (cost and quality)
DRUGS AND PROCEDURES
--- Buying drugs and procedures smartly, cheaply, safely
---Patient assistance programs (for buying medications)
---Fighting drug price gouging and making drugs more affordable
---Generic drugs: overpricing, shortages, and other issues
--- Drugs, Big Pharma, conflicts of interest, and why U.S. patients pay too much for medication
---Decoding health care prices
---Reducing medical costs
---Questioning drug claims and managing medication side effects
---Orphan drugs: The good, the bad, and the greedy
---'Right to try' laws, compassionate use of experimental drugs (pro and con)
SURGERY
---What to know and do before surgery
---How to research surgeons and hospitals
---How to help children deal with surgery
---Heart surgery
---Knee replacement surgery
---Hip replacement surgery
---Memoirs and reflections of surgeons and about surgery
---High costs, adverse events, bad practices, other problems with surgery
Eulogies and video tributes (and the beneficial effects of life story telling)
---Obituaries and other forms of tribute
---How putting events into a story may aid the healing process
---The beneficial effects of life story and legacy activities
---Good interview questions for the family
---Healing stories and storytelling organizations and sites
---Stories, healing, and self-understanding (a booklist)
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (a reading list, organized by category)
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (a reading list, organized by authors' last name)
---Narrative medicine and medical narrative
---On dealing with variance from "normality"
---Organizations that assist artists with disabilities
---Telling your story (writing our memoirs, creating a family history, genealogical resources, oral histories, books to get started writing your own or someone else's life story--on my Pat McNees website)
Funerals, cremation, memorial services, and other alternatives
---Advice from the Federal Trade Commission
---Veterans death, burial, and survivor benefits
---Funerals, memorial services, and other ceremonies for the dead
---Music for funerals, wakes, and memorial services
---Green funerals
---Home funerals and family-directed funerals
---Books and stories about family-directed funerals
---Farewells to veterans
---Cremation and crematories
---Coffins, caskets, and urns
---Cemeteries, gravesites, headstones, and memorials
---Online memorials and high-tech headstones (locating burial sites with a smartphone and other digital secrets)
---Organ, tissue, and whole-body donation
---Helpful death-related organizations
---Movies about death, dying, funerals, farewells, and departures
HIPAA, electronic health records, and patient privacy
---Electronic health records (EHR--issues, problems, information)
---The HIPAA privacy rule
---Patient privacy and related issues
Hospice care and palliative care
---Improving end-of-life care
---About end-of-life care
---Frequently asked questions
---How medical professionals can help terminally ill patients prepare to die
---Managing the cost of dying and end-of-life care
---Hospice care (care to comfort, not to cure--for those who are dying)
---The differences between hospice care and palliative care
---Palliative care
---Finding hospice care
---Issues with for-profit hospices
---Blogs about hospice care and palliative care
---Books about hospice and palliative care
---Organizations helpful about end-of-life care)
How storytelling can aid in healing (memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival)
---Good interview questions for the family
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (a reading list, organized by category)
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (a reading list, organized by authors' last name)
---Fiction featuring characters with disabilities
Life story writing (the healing powers of narrative)
---Good interview questions for the family
---Healing stories and storytelling organizations and sites
---Stories, healing, and self-understanding (a booklist)
---Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (a reading list, organized by category)
---Narrative medicine and medical narrative
---On dealing with variance from "normality"
---Organizations that assist artists with disabilities
Managing living arrangements for elderly and disabled
---Senior housing options (the big picture)
---Downsizing, decluttering, moving, and other hard-to-face realities
HOME-BASED SOLUTIONS
---Co-Housing
---Aging in Place (naturally occurring retirement centers, or NORCs)
---The Village Movement: Aging-in-place supported communities
---Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs)
FACILITY-BASED SOLUTIONS
---The Eden Alternative and The Green House Project
---Memory care
---Nursing homes, old-style and new (including Green Houses)
---Long-term acute care hospitals
HELPFUL DEVICES, SUPPORTS, APPROACHES
---Senior health problems, surgery, aches and pains
---Assistive devices, remodeling, and other ways to enable independent living
MISCELLANEOUS
---Legal and financial decision-making
---Addressing problems of homelessness
---End-of-life decision-making in the critical care unit
Managing your health, pain, medications, and health care costs
---Buying drugs and procedures smartly, cheaply, safely
---Fighting drug price gouging and making drugs more affordable
---Questioning drug claims and managing medication side effects
---Finding prices for medical procedures
---Sites providing information about hospital charges
---Managing medications, tests, procedures, and treatments
---Medications, tests, procedures, and treatments to question or avoid
---Telemedicine and virtual medical visits
---The truth about private screening tests
---Managing hospitalization and after
---Reducing medical costs
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
---Good e-resources for patients/consumers
---Patients sharing info and opinions about health care services
---Basic healthcare explanations
---Making wise medical choices,
---For your medical reference shelf
---Books on medicine, health care, and caregiving -- for patients and caregivers
MANAGING PAIN
---Managing ordinary (not chronic) pain
---Managing chronic pain
---Organizations associated with pain management and relief
---The medical use of marijuana
---Managing pain and improving health with yoga
Medical mysteries, patient stories, caregiver stories
---Medical mysteries (stories of illnesses and conditions difficult to diagnose)
---Patient stories
---Medical professionals' stories
---Caregivers' stories
Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance and exchanges
---Frequently asked questions about health insurance and the ACA (Obamacare)
Frequently asked questions about health insurance and the ACA (Obamacare)
---Medicare and Medicaid: History and legislation
---Medicare: What you need to know
---Medicare issues and Medicare reform (and reform proposals)
---Medicaid: What you need to know
---Medicaid issues and Medicaid reform
---MACRA: Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act
---Helpful blogs, websites, organizations, and citizen lobbies about Social Security, Medicare, and pension rights
---How Medicare and Medicaid fall short (End-of-life talks and other issues)
---Health insurance (general)
---Health insurance exchange and marketplaces (and ACA, or Obamacare)
---Faith-based alternatives to health insurance plans
---Health insurance, ACA, and the marriage glitch
---The politics and policy issues of health care (insurance) reform
Music for funerals and memorial services
---Classical music for funerals and memorial services
---Hymns, gospel, and inspirational music for funerals and memorial services
---Funeral anthems
---Patriotic and military funeral music
---Popular secular music, including blues music
Obituaries and other forms of tribute
---Self-written obituaries
---Online obituary and memorial websites
---About obituaries and obituary writing
---Examples of moving, memorable, amusing, or interesting obituaries and other kinds of tribute
---Books on (and of) obituary writing
---Eulogies and video tributes
Reforming the U.S. health care system
---Understanding the issues
---Repeal, replace, and various proposed alternatives to Obamacare (ACA)
---Health care reform and the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare)
---Doctors' incentives to prescribe expensive medications
---Who are Pharmacy Benefit Managers managing benefits for?
---Improving healthcare practices
---The costs of neglecting the mentally ill
---Organizations serious about improving U.S. healthcare
---Essential facts about the Affordable Care Act
---The politics and policy issues of health care (insurance) reform and the ACA (Obamacare)
---Health insurance, ACA, and the marriage glitch
---Taking the mystery out of health care prices (blog post)
---Why U.S. medical costs are so high and where the system needs fixing (blog post)
---Drugs, Big Pharma, conflicts of interest, and why U.S. patients pay too much for medication (blog post)
Retirement 101
--- Retirement and insurance calculators
---Retirement Finances 101
--- Being smart about pensions and annuities
---Social Security
---Retirement funds and issues
---Reverse mortgages, pro and con
---Second Chances: Retirement as a second act
---Traveling in retirement
Social Security and veterans benefits, pensions, and annuities
---Disability benefits
---Being smart about pensions and annuities
---Calculating and maximizing benefits
---History of (and threats to) Social Security
---Problems with, and proposed changes to, Social Security
---Research findings
---Stories and analysis, explanations and arguments
---Veterans healthcare, death, and survivor benefits
---Safety net programs for the poor
---Veterans healthcare, death, and survivor benefits
--- Veterans and veterans benefits, issues with (including Agent Orange)
Substance abuse and recovery
---Addiction, treatment, and recovery
---Alcoholism and approaches to treatment
---Addiction to opioids and psychoactive drugs
---Kratom as an alternative to opioids
---Culprits in the opioid crisis
---Eating disorders
---Smoking and smoking cessation
---Addiction to gambling
---Addiction to smartphones, the internet, online technology (aka "dependence syndrome")
---Helpful organizations and publications
---The war on drugs
---The problems with drug courts
---Sober living housing options
---Memoirs and fiction about drug abuse and various forms of addiction