What is Hospice?

A Guide to Palliative Care Providers

The first hospice in America was established in Connecticut in 1974. Within twenty years, the number of hospices was up to around 1,700. Hospices have now become an accepted aspect of the health care system of the United States and many other countries. The growth of hospice can be in part credited to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. She helped to promote the concept of dying with dignity in America.

Hospice is not so much a place, but a concept of care. Hospices are groups that assist the dying either in an inpatient setting or as an outpatient. The majority of care, eighty percent, is provided in a home setting or nursing home environment. The goal of most hospices is to help the dying and their family through a number of programs. Hospice programs can include:

• Patient pain management
• Providing emotional support to patient and family
• Physician and nursing services
• Home Health Aides
• Bereavement counseling and services
• Medical appliances and supplies
• Alternative and complementary medical information

Hospices offer a wide variety of services and are very flexible in how a patient receives care.

For example, hospice care be received in the following three environments:

• Hospital Hospice - a hospice center within a health care facility. Referrals to this program come from the facility and staff hospital doctors and nurses.
• Private Hospice - this hospice usually provides care through the hospice's own inpatient facility or within the patient's home setting. Referrals can come from advertising or referral.
• Home Health Hospice – allows the patient to be cared for and ultimately, to die at home, while receiving support from hospice home health staff. Most referrals come from physicians or hospitals, which can run some programs.

A hospice really is a great option for those seeking a supportive staff, an integrated approach to medical treatment options, pain management, counseling, and family support resources. Contact a hospice in your area and see what services they offer. You can find a hospice in your area on the Hospice Foundation of America web site.

Death & Dying Reading List

Resources for the Dying and Their Loved Ones

Learning that you are dying is a terrifying and confusing experience. Many times the terminal patient has so many questions that they don't know where to start getting help. Perhaps they are simply too overwhelmed to know what to ask or don't have the resources to get the emotional support they need.

A good place to start getting help is by reading. There are a lot of great books that can educate and inspire. It can be a comfort to know that someone has gone through the same thing that you're facing. Learn how others have dealt with their own mortality issues with this list of handpicked books from your About Guide.

I recommend the following books on dying:

Advice on Dying: And Living a Better Life - By His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

Death: The Final Stage of Growth - By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Dying Well: Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life - By Ira Byock

How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter - By Sherwin B. Nuland

Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness - By Joanne Lynn

Questions & Answers on Death and Dying - By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul: Stories About Life, Death and Overcoming the Loss of a Loved One - By Mark Victor Hansen & Jack Canfield

A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last - By Stephen Levine

Inspirational Quotes for Grief, Death & Dying

Inspirational Quotes to help you heal, to inspire, and comfort.


"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had."

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive -- to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


"People living deeply have no fear of death."

~Anais Nin


"One often calms one's grief by recounting it."

~Pierre Corneille


"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."

~Norman Cousins


"A useless life is an early death."

~Johann W. von Goethe


"The only cure for grief is action."

~George Henry Lewes


"Mourning is not forgetting... It is an undoing. Every minute tie has to be untied and something permanent and valuable recovered and assimilated from the dust."

~Margery Allingham


"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."

~The Rumi


"To not think of dying, is to not think of living."

~Jann Arden


"Eternity is not something that begins after you're dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now."

~Charlotte Perkins Gilman


"I have absolutely no fear of death. From my near-death research and my personal experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality."

~Raymond Moody


"Every mortal loss is an immortal gain."

~William Blake


"The happiness of the drop is to die in the river."

~Al-Ghazali

"The grave is but a covered bridge Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!"

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


"Oh, write of me, not 'Died in bitter pains,' But 'Emigrated to another star!' "

~Helen Hunt Jackson


"For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death."

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


"For any culture which is primarily concerned with meaning, the study of death -- the only certainty that life holds for us -- must be central, for an understanding of death is the key to liberation in life."

~Stanislav Grof


"The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death."

~Voltaire


"For a man who has done his natural duty, death is as natural as sleep."

~George Santayana


"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live you life in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice."

~Native American Proverb


"Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names."

~The Bible


"No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humaneness."

~Hermann Broch

"Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. There is as little reason to deplore the one as there is to be pleased over the other."

Hunter S. Thompson's Remains Shot Out of Cannon

One of the most unique final resting places has got to be that of Hunter S. Thompson. The popular American writer, who died February 20, 2005, had his ashes shot out of cannon. The writer of such hits as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, "Hey Rube" and "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" committed suicide in his home outside of Aspen, Colorado. He apparently shot himself while speaking with his wife on the phone. His family was not surprised by his suicide, citing that Hunter had been in a lot of pain recently due to several injuries. He was 67 at the time of his death. Keeping with his quirky character, he requested to be cremated and to have his ashes shot out of a cannon. He requested no other funeral.

Could You Stand to be Buried This Way?

Are you looking for a unique way to be buried with minimal impact on the environment and pocketbook? A new cemetery in Australia may just have the solution for you!

A company in Victoria, Australia has gotten approval to open a new cemetery at Darlington, which lies about 125 miles southwest of the Victorian capital Melbourne. The new cemetery, which is a first of its kind in Australia, will offer burials with minimal impact to the environment. The new residents of the cemetery will be buried standing up in biodegradable body bags without caskets or headstones. The land will continue to be used as grazing land to further lessen the environmental impact.

The no-fuss burial option is as easy on the wallet as it is on the land. Burials will cost A$1000, which is approximately US$780.

Bodies will be stored in a Melbourne morgue and relocated to the cemetery in groups of 15 to help keep costs to a minimum. With no ongoing costs for upkeep, the “green” burial option is much less expensive than a traditional burial or cremation.

Loved ones will still be able to identify the burial plots of the deceased via a chart on the fence, which tells where each resident is buried. The new cemetery is less expensive and more environmentally sound than traditional burials.

Arlington National Cemetery

Location: Northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

Age: Established in 1864.

Size: Large - At 612 acres, Arlington is the second largest cemetery in the United States. Over 260,000 people are buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Vacancies: Yes, but strict guidelines limit who may be buried there.

History: Arlington National Cemetery is located on land that once belonged to John Parke Custis, Martha Washington's son. Robert E. Lee also lived on the land before it became a cemetery. It was established as a military cemetery in 1864 and is now a National Monument and the final resting place for many of America's bravest soldiers, leaders and their families. The Department of the Army now maintains the cemetery.

Famous Citizens: William Howard Taft, Former U.S. President
John F. Kennedy, Former U.S. President
Glenn Miller, Famous Band Leader
Joe Louis, Prizefighter
Virgil (Gus) Grissom, Astronaut{br] Robert Peary, Explorer
Matthew Henson, Explorer
Medgar Evers, Civil Rights Leader
Earl Warren, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Dashiell Hammett, Mystery Writer
The remains of the seven Space Shuttle Challenger crewmembers.

Items of Interest: Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers, the Confederate Monument, the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial, and the Custis-Lee mansion.

Contact: Memorial Drive
Arlington, VA 22211
Phone: (703) 607-8585

Website: www.arlingtoncemetery.org

Cemetery Profile: Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Age: Established in 1866

Size: 331 Acres
Vacancies: Yes

History: Jefferson Barracks was the army's first permanent base west of the Mississippi River and remains one of the National Cemetery Administrations oldest sites. There are graves that date from the Civil War to WWII. It became an official national cemetery in 1866. In 1869 the recovered remains of 10,200 soldiers previously buried elsewhere were moved to Jefferson Barracks, causing tremendous growth. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Famous Citizens: Several notable Medal of Honor Burials
Soldiers from several wars

1,140 Confederate Soldiers

Samuel Marion Dennis, founder of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Arkansas

Items of Interest: The Carillon Bell Tower, U.S. Submarine Veteran’s Memorial, Memorial dedicated to the memory of Merchant Marine Seamen and Navy Armed Guard, Blue Star Memorial Marker, The Memorial Chapel, a memorial for women who aided during the civil war, The Fort Bellefontaine Monument, and several other memorials for unknowns and war heros.

Contact: 2900 Sheridan Road
St. Louis, MO 63125
Phone: (314) 260-8691 or 260-8692

Website: http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp