cover image The Hospice Choice: In Pursuit of a Peaceful Death

The Hospice Choice: In Pursuit of a Peaceful Death

Marcia Lattanzi-Licht, John J. Maloney, John J. Mahoney. Fireside Books, $19.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-684-82269-3

A hospice nurse and psychotherapist who cofounded the Boulder County Hospice in Colorado, Lattanzi-Lict writes with authority about the ways in which hospice care can help individuals and families deal with terminal illness. By alternating illustrative stories of an assortment of hospice patients--elderly cancer patients, a young mother, a man with AIDS, a newborn--with specific factual data about what hospice care is and how it works, she and her colleagues Mahoney and Fisher (president and vice-president, respectively, of the National Hospice Organization) demonstrate how hospice teams provide care, usually at home, for the dying. Hospice teams of doctors, nurses, nursing aides, social workers, counselors and volunteers work closely with the family to manage pain and address the patient's myriad physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. To round out the picture, Lattanzi-Licht includes statements by volunteers and a nurse on the rewards of their work, brief questions and answers about hospice care and a resource list to guide consumers in finding and assessing a hospice program. This is a lucid and informative advocacy writing. (Mar.)