Dying: A Book of Comfort
 

---Getting your affairs in order
---Advance directives, POLSTs, MOLSTs, living wills, health care (medical) proxies
---Wills, trusts, legacies, and estates
---Documents and information to keep together, easily findable (personal, financial, and legal)
---Documents to protect your and your survivors' rights and wishes
---End-of-life planning and document storage sites
---Planning for long-term care and end-of-life preferences
---Financial planning 101
---Your literary estate
---Planning, handling, and protecting your digital estate
---Eldercare planning resources
---Elder law, elder protection, and pension rights organizations
---Preventing elder abuse and scams (and being aware of senior guardianship problems)
---End of life planning for pets

See also
Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance exchanges
Social Security and veterans benefits, pensions, and annuities

And dealing with some common problems in aging

---Positive aging (finding fulfillment in the golden years)
---Enjoying lifelong learning (MOOCs, OLLI, Great Courses, TED talks, and the like)
---Reminiscence, life review, and life storytelling
---Managing modern life (and electronics)
---Facing tough issues
---Connection? or loneliness?
---Traveling in retirement (and otherwise)
---The new landscape of intimate relationships
---Managing a healthy weight
---Exercise
---Preventing falls
---Finding the right medical alert system
---Preventing and dealing with frailty
---Nutrition
---Memory
---Cognitive skills and development
---Bladder control and related problems
---Knee replacement and other fixes for body parts
---Research on aging
---Books and movies about our new peer group
---If I had my life to live over

---Caring for patients with dementia
---Alzheimer's disease
---Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
---Lewy body dementia
---Dementia signs, symptoms, testing and diagnosis
---Dementia support groups and research organizations
---Blogs about dementia
---Helpful books about dementia
---Films, documentaries, and shorts about dementia

---Understanding Autism
---Asperger's syndrome
---Savant syndrome
---Being practical
---Stories of individuals with autism
---Parents' and siblings' stories
---Organizations focused on or helpful about autism
---Blogs about autism
---About autism and vaccines

---Index of blog posts
---You, your body, and your health
---Health care, medicine, and the healthcare system
---How we die (managing and honoring the end of life)
---Life, home, and estate management
---Telling our life stories
---Wisdom and entertainment

Heart and coronary conditions and care
---General information about cardiovascular health and disease
---Preventing and surviving heart attacks
---Preventing, treating, and surviving strokes
---Heart disease in women
---Heart surgery
---Pros and cons of various tests, treatments, habits
---The statin wars
---Hypertension and blood pressure issues
---Evidence-based cardiovascular care
---Eminence-based medicine
---Books and other resources about heart, stroke, and other cardiovascular disease

(and donating your body or body parts)
---Volunteering
---Charity ratings
---Tips on charitable giving
---Rethinking charity
---Teaching the next generation about giving
---Practicing philanthropy: giving to make a difference
---Worst practices in charity world
---Donating your body or body parts
---Organ and tissue transplants

---Specific conditions, in alphabetical order
---Rare and undiagnosed diseases and conditions
---Memoirs of coping with chronic, rare, or invisible diseases, including mental health problems
---Orphan drugs: the good, the bad, and the greedy
---Helpful resources, including organizations
---Support groups for patients with chronic, rare, and invisible diseases and disorders
---Coping with invisible chronic illnesses and conditions

Important articles and stories about Covid-19 and the pandemic

---Helping a dying friend
---Improving end-of-life care
---Practical aspects of end-of-life care and decision-making
---Saying goodbye
---When is someone legally dead?
---End-of-life planning and choices for pets
---Complex and difficult endings--suicide, homicide, physician-assisted suicide, violence (including domestic violence), sudden death (from accidents and otherwise), dementia and other forms of lingering illness
---Books about death and dying (including the "good death" and dying with dignity)
---Hospice care and palliative care (don't wait too late!)
---Bereavement, grief, and recovery
---Stages of grief ("The only way out is through.")
---Selections from DYING: A Book of Comfort
---Near-death experiences (crossing over)
---Death Cafes (events, not venues--conversations about end-of-life concerns)
---Conversations about dying
---Statistics about death, mortality, long-term care, hospice care, and palliative care
---Movies about death and dying
---Order DYING: A Book of Comfort
---Funerals, cremation, home funerals, green burial, memorial services
---Music for funerals and memorial services

Including bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), OCD, schizophrenia, and PTSD
---General help and information
---Approaches to treatment
---The system: Issues affecting the treatment of mental illness
---ADHD, ADD, and other problems with inconsistent (sometimes hyperfocused) attention
---Anxiety and phobias
---Bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness)
---Borderline personality disorder
---Children's mental health
---Cutting and self-harm
---Depression, including Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
---Eating disorders
---Marcissistic personality disorder
---Obsessive-compulsive disorder (O.C.D.),
including hoarding behavior
---Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
---Schizophrenia
---Substance abuse
---Mental health organizations

Complex, difficult, and intentional deaths

---End-of-life decision-making
---End-of-life decision-making in the critical care unit
---Death with dignity (assisted-dying laws, etc.)
---Assisted dying and VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking)
---Euthanasia (physician-assisted dying)
---Suicide and suicide prevention
---Books about suicide (and surviving a suicide)
---Helpful organizations and online resources
---Useful general links
---How to tell children their parent is dying
---Grieving the loss of a child
---Complex and Difficult Endings: A Reading List

---Downsizing and decluttering (letting go of things)
---Organizing and dealing with things and information
---Selling or recycling books, etc.
---Selling and renting stuff online
---Recycling electronics and other stuff
---Evaluating your "valuables"
---Garage, estate, and yard sales, etc.
---Giving your stuff to a good cause
---Senior move managers and other specialists
---Cleaning and household tips
---Being, or trying to help, a hoarder

DRUGS AND PROCEDURES
--- Buying drugs and procedures smartly, cheaply, safely
---Patient assistance programs (for buying medications)
---Fighting drug price gouging and making drugs more affordable
---Generic drugs: overpricing, shortages, and other issues
--- Drugs, Big Pharma, conflicts of interest, and why U.S. patients pay too much for medication
---Decoding health care prices
---Reducing medical costs
---Questioning drug claims and managing medication side effects
---Orphan drugs: The good, the bad, and the greedy
---'Right to try' laws, compassionate use of experimental drugs (pro and con)
SURGERY
---What to know and do before surgery
---How to research surgeons and hospitals
---How to help children deal with surgery
---Heart surgery
---Knee replacement surgery
---Hip replacement surgery
---Memoirs and reflections of surgeons and about surgery
---High costs, adverse events, bad practices, other problems with surgery

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

---Improving end-of-life care
---About end-of-life care
---Frequently asked questions
---How medical professionals can help terminally ill patients prepare to die
---Managing the cost of dying and end-of-life care
---Hospice care (care to comfort, not to cure--for those who are dying)
---The differences between hospice care and palliative care
---Palliative care
---Finding hospice care
---Issues with for-profit hospices
---Blogs about hospice care and palliative care
---Books about hospice and palliative care
---Organizations helpful about end-of-life care)

New housing models, equipment, services
---Senior housing options (the big picture)
---Downsizing, decluttering, moving, and other hard-to-face realities
HOME-BASED SOLUTIONS
---Co-Housing
---Aging in Place (naturally occurring retirement centers, or NORCs)
---The Village Movement: Aging-in-place supported communities
---Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs)
FACILITY-BASED SOLUTIONS
---The Eden Alternative and The Green House Project
---Memory care
---Nursing homes, old-style and new (including Green Houses)
---Long-term acute care hospitals

HELPFUL DEVICES, SUPPORTS, APPROACHES
---Senior health problems, surgery, aches and pains
---Assistive devices, remodeling, and other ways to enable independent living

MISCELLANEOUS
---Legal and financial decision-making
---Addressing problems of homelessness
---End-of-life decision-making in the critical care unit

---Buying drugs and procedures smartly, cheaply, safely
---Fighting drug price gouging and making drugs more affordable
---Questioning drug claims and managing medication side effects
---Finding prices for medical procedures
---Sites providing information about hospital charges
---Managing medications, tests, procedures, and treatments
---Medications, tests, procedures, and treatments to question or avoid
---Telemedicine and virtual medical visits
---The truth about private screening tests
---Managing hospitalization and after
---Reducing medical costs
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
---Good e-resources for patients/consumers
---Patients sharing info and opinions about health care services
---Basic healthcare explanations
---Making wise medical choices,
---For your medical reference shelf
---Books on medicine, health care, and caregiving -- for patients and caregivers
MANAGING PAIN
---Managing ordinary (not chronic) pain
---Managing chronic pain
---Organizations associated with pain management and relief
---The medical use of marijuana
---Managing pain and improving health with yoga

---Medical mysteries (stories of illnesses and conditions difficult to diagnose)
---Patient stories
---Medical professionals' stories
---Caregivers' stories

---Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
---Frequently asked questions about health insurance and the ACA (Obamacare)
Frequently asked questions about health insurance and the ACA (Obamacare)
---Medicare and Medicaid: History and legislation
---Medicare: What you need to know
---Medicare issues and Medicare reform (and reform proposals)
---Medicaid: What you need to know
---Medicaid issues and Medicaid reform
---MACRA: Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act
---Helpful blogs, websites, organizations, and citizen lobbies about Social Security, Medicare, and pension rights
---How Medicare and Medicaid fall short (End-of-life talks and other issues)
---Health insurance (general)
---Health insurance exchange and marketplaces (and ACA, or Obamacare)
---Faith-based alternatives to health insurance plans
---Health insurance, ACA, and the marriage glitch
---The politics and policy issues of health care (insurance) reform

---Will you die from medical error?
---The anatomy of medical error
---Reducing preventable medical errors

---Understanding the issues
---Repeal, replace, and various proposed alternatives to Obamacare (ACA)
---Health care reform and the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare)
---Doctors' incentives to prescribe expensive medications
---Who are Pharmacy Benefit Managers managing benefits for?
---Improving healthcare practices (and organizations)
---The costs of neglecting the mentally ill
---Organizations serious about improving U.S. healthcare
---Essential facts about the Affordable Care Act
---The politics and policy issues of health care (insurance) reform and the ACA (Obamacare)
---Health insurance, ACA, and the marriage glitch

---Taking the mystery out of health care prices (blog post)
---Why U.S. medical costs are so high and where the system needs fixing (blog post)
---Drugs, Big Pharma, conflicts of interest, and why U.S. patients pay too much for medication (blog post)

---Pros and cons of a single-payer system
---Retainer or concierge medicine and other new models for paying doctors
---Dealing with manpower shortages (physicians and other healthcare professionals

---Basic information about U.S. Social Security
---Disability benefits
---Being smart about pensions and annuities
---Calculating and maximizing benefits
---History of (and threats to) Social Security
---Problems with, and proposed changes to, Social Security
---Research findings
---Stories and analysis, explanations and arguments
---Veterans healthcare, death, and survivor benefits
---Safety net programs for the poor
---Veterans healthcare, death, and survivor benefits
--- Veterans and veterans benefits, issues with (including Agent Orange)

---Addiction, treatment, and recovery
---Alcoholism and approaches to treatment
---Addiction to opioids and psychoactive drugs
---Kratom as an alternative to opioids
---Culprits in the opioid crisis
---Eating disorders
---Smoking and smoking cessation
---Addiction to gambling
---Addiction to smartphones, the internet, online technology (aka "dependence syndrome")
---Helpful organizations and publications
---The war on drugs
---The problems with drug courts
---Sober living housing options
---Memoirs and fiction about drug abuse and various forms of addiction