WORDS AND PAPER
The Heart of Hospice Care
How Caregivers Go Beyond Medicine
While hospice care includes clinical support like pain management and symptom relief, its true magic lies in the heart work—the quiet, unwavering dedication of those who walk beside patients and families during life’s most vulnerable moments
Misconceptions About Hospice Care
Even though hospice care has helped millions of families, it’s still widely misunderstood. These misconceptions can prevent people from receiving the comfort, support, and dignity they deserve during the final stages of life.
Let’s explore—and gently correct—some of the most common myths.
What is Hospice Care?
Understanding the Purpose and Heart of Hospice
When faced with a life-limiting illness, both patients and their families are often overwhelmed by medical jargon, difficult decisions, and emotional strain. This is where hospice care steps in—not to cure, but to comfort.
Hospice care is a specialized approach to healthcare that focuses on quality of life, not the quantity of time. It’s about ensuring every moment is filled with dignity, peace, and support—both for the patient and their loved ones.
Death, Grief, and Funerals in the COVID age
Grief and death are on everyone’s mind. For most of us the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated death and collective grief is unprecedented. Combined with social distancing protocol, end-of-life issues, death care, and grief have become even more complex.
Bringing Life to Death: The Need for Honest, Compassionate, and Effective End-of-Life Conversations
Amy R. MacKenzie, MD, FACP and Michelle Lasota, BSN, RN
Conversations about death and dying are a crucial part of all medical care and are particularly relevant in the field of oncology. Patients express a desire to have discussions about goals of care, and many patients have thought about their end-of-life (EOL) wishes but have not had an opportunity to openly talk with care providers about this. Deficiencies in medical training, lack of confidence, limited time, and cultural barriers all contribute to the paucity of these important discussions.
Horror Movie Director Puts the End of Life in a Positive Light
Movie Review: The Nurse With the Purple Hair
Sean Cunningham is a movie producer and director best known for the original Friday the 13th. In his horror movies, Cunningham plays on people’s fear of death. But in a new documentary, The Nurse With the Purple Hair, he shows us that death doesn’t have to be scary.
Festival Raises Money for Charity with the Help of Sean Cunningham
The genre festival circuit is just ramping up at the moment, but the end of the season always bows out on a high in Wales with Abertoir.
Horror King Turns Hospice Helper
The Irish News:
Best known for horror hits Last House on The Left and Friday The 13th, US film-maker Sean S Cunningham's latest project is a documentary about the vital role played by hospice care workers. He spoke to David Roy about a charity screening in Belfast in aid of Northern Ireland Hospice
Sean Joins the Journey with Deanna Podcast
Podcast:
The Nurse With the Purple Hair and Journey with Deanna
Documentary Review: "The Nurse with the Purple Hair," Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Kathleen Clohessy (Blog Writer, SevenPonds)
An inspiring documentary about hospice by a director famous for his horror films
How to Prepare for a Good Death
Zen Hospice Project:
Wise words and solid advice from BJ Miller, who thinks deeply about the end of life as head of the Zen Hospice Project.
The Art of Dying Well
Deathbed Etiquette:
When hospice nurse Laurie McKay arrived at the emergency room, her patient -- a man in his early sixties with terminal cancer and now a fractured hip -- told her: "I knew you would be coming someday, but today my wife and I were supposed to be getting on a cruise ship."
How Families are Giving a Fantastic Trip to Loved Ones in Hospice
CNET:
When hospice nurse Laurie McKay arrived at the emergency room, her patient -- a man in his early sixties with terminal cancer and now a fractured hip -- told her: "I knew you would be coming someday, but today my wife and I were supposed to be getting on a cruise ship."
THE NURSE WITH THE PURPLE HAIR is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of THE NURSE WITH THE PURPLE HAIR must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only. The value of THE NURSE WITH THE PURPLE HAIR DVD is $20. Any contribution above that amount is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.