Health news and advice (top sites)

Selected Works

See also Subjects/sections within categories

Advance directives, living wills, and other practical matters

Wills, trusts, MOLSTs, POLSTs, and other aspects of estate planning and end-of-life planning

Coronavirus: Facts and Stories About Covid

Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance and exchanges

And the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Substance abuse, various forms of addiction, and recovery

Aging with grace, spirit, wisdom and safety

Aging solo, traveling in retirement, emotional issues, staying healthy, preventing falls, knee and hip replacement, dealing with frailty, and other issues

Alzheimer's disease, brain conditions, and forms of dementia and memory loss

Autism spectrum disorders

Autism, Asperger's syndrome, savant syndrome

The beneficial effects of life story and legacy activities

Bereavement, grief, and recovery

Blog Posts (index to)

Books and films to help you make it through the night

Recommended reading, viewing, and listening

Cardiovascular disease (and prevention)

What's the difference between heart attack, cardiac arrest, and heart failure?

Caregivers, caregiving, long-term care, and caregiver burnout

Charitable giving and volunteering

and Philanthropy (plus donating your body or body parts)

COPING WITH CANCER

Coping with chronic, rare, and invisible diseases and disorders

and Autoimmune diseases

(these include Addison disease, certain forms of arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome (CSF), dermatomyositis, fibromyalgia, Graves' disease, Hashimoto's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, MS, myasthenia gravis, Sjogren syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus)

Death, dying, and end-of-life care

The good death

Depression and other forms of mental illness

Depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), schizophrenia, ADD, and other mental health problems

Difficult, complex, and intentional deaths (difficult endings)

Death with dignity, aid in dying, medical aid in dying, assisted dying, suicide and suicide hotlines, end-of-life decision-making, homicide (especially gun violence), mass shootings

Disability

Downsizing, decluttering, moving, and other hard-to-face realities

Plus hoarding, cleaning, recycling, donating to charity, and pest control!

Drugs, surgery, procedures, and medical care (cost and quality)

Plus faulty medical devices, medical costs, medical debt, and others.

Eulogies and video tributes (and the beneficial effects of life story telling)

Plus memorials and requiems

Funerals, cremation, memorial services, and other alternatives

Plus cemeteries, coffins, headstones, memorials, etc.

Helping a dying friend

What to say (or not say) to those who are dying or grieving

HIPAA, electronic health records, and patient privacy

Hospice care and palliative care

End-of-life care and comfort care

How storytelling can aid in healing (memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival)

Life story writing (the healing powers of narrative)

Narrative medicine (or medical narrative)
Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival

Long-term care and long-term care insurance

Housing options and living arrangements for elderly and disabled

Assisted living, nursing homes, cohousing, or living in place (with or without caregivers)
Addressing problems of homelessness

Managing your health, pain, medications, health care costs, abortion and reproductive rights

(plus hospitals, ER, urgent care, hospitalization, and surprise medical bills)

Medical mysteries, patient stories, caregiver stories

Information and stories about medical conditions, infections, infectious diseases, and vector-borne diseases, with sections on the diagnosis of mystery (difficult-to-diagnose) conditions.

Music for funerals and memorial services

Obituaries and other forms of tribute

Prayers, poems, and meditations

Reducing medical errors

Improving patient safety, reducing harmful surgical lapses

Reforming the U.S. health care system

What's wrong with American health care? Understanding the issues reform should address.

Retirement 101

Selections from DYING: A Book of Comfort

Single-payer and other models for health care financing

Differences from "Medicare for All" and "Universal health care coverage"

Social Security and veterans benefits, pensions, and annuities