By Mary Lou Dahms Since I work in healthcare, I have learned from our hospice staff about the value of making your end-of-life wishes known. In fact, I always talked about it whenever I was invited to speak on hospice. I was talking the talk. The time had come to walk the walk. Armed with [...]

By Jane Millikan Anytime you’re dealing with a limited prognosis, spiritual issues are in the background. Everybody deals with this in their own way. A hospice chaplain can help because we’re good listeners; someone to talk to when it’s hard to find answers. We may not know all the answers, but we know that asking [...]

By Mary Lou Dahms How many times have you said, “Just call if there is anything I can do to help.” How often have you heard from the person you offered that to? Maybe it’s a generational thing, more likely a cultural thing, but for the most part, people aren’t comfortable calling up a friend [...]

By Amy DuBois Believe it or not, this is an actual photo from a hospice social worker visit. Let me explain. Susie*, a young patient of ours, has Huntington’s disease. It’s an awful disease which causes the wasting of nerve cells in the brain, leaving a person with very little control of his or her [...]