END OF LIFE - PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative Care. Care given to improve the quality of life of patients who have a serious or life-threatening disease. The goal of palliative care is to prevent or treat as early as possible the symptoms of the disease, side effects caused by treatment of the disease, and psychological, social, and spiritual problems related to the disease or its treatment. Also called comfort care, supportive care, and symptom management.

End of Life - Palliative Care Resource Center - Lots of resources for health care professionals. See topices on "How to deliver bad news", " telephone communication" "Dealing with Anger" . Also contains extensive listing of articles by topic.

U of M Palliative Care Clinic and consultation service

An Information Resource Guide for End of Life Care - Phamplet available on the Michigan.Gov website.

Dying well - a website designed to assist individuals and their families to plan for their dying.

Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It contains tools, products and resources for innovative models and approaches for hospice and palliative care. It is dedicated to long-term changes to improve health care for dying people and their families.

Caring Connections - a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), is a national consumer and community engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Obtaining a Death Certificate

University Hospital does not provide copies of death certificates. For information about how to obtain a copy of a death certificate, contact your local county Clerk's Office of Records and Deeds. Washtenaw County number is (734) 222-6720. If someone has recently died, counsel the family to speak with the funeral home for assistance.

Understanding Brain Death - helpful handout to use to assist families to unerstand what staff mean when they discuss it.

A Funeral Guide – Brochure put out by the Federal Trade Commission with facts for the consumer. Walks you through the process of planning the funeral, rules and regulations, etc.

Listing of the Nationwide Cremation & Funeral Home Network. Has an 800 number and the and charges from simple cremation to Complete funeral plan.

The Department of Human Services has information about burial assistance that the state will help with.

A copy of the Grief Packet used by the Trauma Burn Service. This is a pdf file. You can print only those pages you wish.

Grief Packet maintained by the hospital patient and family education network.

Last updated 04/17/2006