Last Comforts: Notes From the Forefront of Late Life Care

AUSTIN, Texas - April 6, 2016 - PRLog -- Ellen Rand, author of the book, "Last Comforts: Notes From the Forefront of Late Life Care,"has been a journalist for more than 40 years, including five years as a housing columnist for The New York Times. She is a hospice volunteer with Holy Name Medical Center in Bergen County, New Jersey, a member of the Hospice Volunteer Association and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her essays have appeared in several medical humanities publications, including Pulse-Voices from the Heart of Medicine; KevinMD; and Life Matters Media. She blogs at http://lastcomforts.com.

She was a co-founder and for five years the executive director of a film festival in her community. Its theme is "Activism: Making Change," and it regularly attracts several thousands of filmgoers during one weekend every November.

Rand grew up in New York City and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Queens College, City University of New York.

Author's Statement:

"This book chronicles my own journey through this unwelcome territory, beginning with the illnesses and loss of my parents and continuing through more than five years as a hospice volunteer. Though I had initially aimed to write solely about hospice, it soon became clear that there were so many broader, interwoven issues in end-of-life care. I broadened my reporting to cover such issues as medical and nursing education, dementia care, long-term care alternatives,challenges faced by minority, gay, and transgender populations, and public policy. The book grew out of one basic question that kept nagging at me not long after I became a hospice volunteer: Why do people enter into hospice care so late in the course of their illness? So late that they don't have the chance take full advantage of all that hospice offers. So late that there isn't sufficient time to develop the trust, ease and, yes, friendship that can provide great comfort for the ill and their families experiencing what is likely the biggest challenge of their lives. Call it curiosity, call it frustration, call it exercising a reporter's muscles, this question drove me to begin researching the current realities of end-of-life care. I wanted to learn: how can we do this better?

"I am an optimist by nature. My goal was to look to the pathfinders and innovations in caring for people with advanced and life-limiting illness to learn how the future might be dramatically different for the coming wave of aging baby boomers.

"I believe that the seeds for better end-of-life care have been planted. It is up to us to nurture the seeds and insist on the kinds of changes we'll need."

This week's Podcast: http://journeypodcast.com/last-comforts-notes-from-the-fo...

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