Palliative Care in Kerala

The Indian state of Kerala has a remarkable palliative care program.  It is an example of what can be done with little money and unl9imited compassion.  Volunteers are the linchpin in Kerala’s palliative care system — one that was singled out as “a beacon of hope" in The Economist’s “Quality of Death” study in 2010. Kerala’s achievement is especially significant at a time when richer Indian states and wealthy countries like the United States are struggling with the same challenge: How can health systems offer the possibility of a dignified death to everyone?

Full NY Times article: In India, Dispensers of Balm Travelto Death’s Door

by Ankita Rao January 12, 2016

Volunteer and Patient in Kerala

Their Dying Wishes

by Ann Neumann:
I met Mr. C. because he was dying and his wife needed someone to sit with him Saturday nights while she attended Mass. I was a relatively new hospice volunteer, not long out of training, and Mr. C. was my first assignment with a patient at home, rather than in a hospital or health care facility...

Their Dying Wishes is a moving piece by a hospice volunteer.  It's part of a series in the NY Times called "The End" that "features essays by people who work in fields dealing with death and dying, like medicine, ethics and religion, as well as personal essays by those who have experienced the death of a loved one."