Distribution Ideas

• Nursing homes and hospice programs: Include a copy in every admission packet to open the door to discussions about end-of-life decision making and advance care planning.
• Physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other healthcare professionals: Give copies to patients and families after end-of-life discussions. This allows them to review the topics of the conversation later. Hand out extra copies for family members who are not present.
• Presentations and support groups: Hard Choices for Loving People can be a helpful companion in presentations to community and professional audiences. Some faith groups use the books in discussion sessions or as a helpful aid for those visiting the sick and elderly.
• Attorneys and financial planners: This book is an excellent tool for helping clients with advance directives during estate planning. The information in the book aids in drawing up a living will and medical durable power of attorney.
• Outreach to other organizations:
  • Hospitals can distribute the books to nursing homes or community groups as part of their public service efforts.
  • Hospices may give them to hospital discharge planners, oncology and ICU clinicians, palliative care teams, and others to help with end-of-life decision making.

Distribution Ideas

• Anyone who has received Hard Choices for Loving People: Use this book to follow up with clients and families. Encourage further emotional and spiritual exploration while giving comfort.
• Social workers, psychotherapists, and bereavement counselors: Provide Light in the Shadows to clients who are grieving or are anticipating an imminent death.
• Emergency room staff: These professionals find the book helpful for patients and families facing the sudden loss of life or declining health.
• Community outreach: Use Light in the Shadows for marketing and outreach events in your community.

Resources for Professionals

Center for Practical Bioethics
An independent nonprofit organization that has helped patients, families, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and corporate leaders grapple with difficult issues in healthcare and research involving patients for over 30 years.

Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care
Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care was a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation dedicated to long-term changes to improve health care for dying people and their families. Through the work of innovative demonstration projects and national workgroups they addressed particular challenges to existing models of hospice and palliative care. The Promoting Excellence project was a time-limited project and no longer operates, but the website is still active and helpful.

Growth House
Provides education about life-threatening illness and end-of-life care. The primary mission is to improve the quality of compassionate care for people who are dying through public education and global professional collaboration. The search engine gives you access to the Internet’s most comprehensive collection of reviewed resources for end-of-life care.

Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
Among other things, includes research on African Americans at the end of life and caring for Jewish patients.

Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (or POLST) are portable medical orders that help seriously ill or frail individuals communicate their treatment decisions to clinical teams at the end of life.

VITALtalk
VITALtalk is a nonprofit providing evidence-based trainings to empower clinicians to have effective, empathic, and honest conversations with patients and their families as a cornerstone of patient-centered care.

GeriPal (A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog)
GeriPal is an online forum for discourse, recent news/research, and freethinking commentary about clinical practice and healthcare policy among any clinician or person who is interested in the care of the elderly or palliative care.