Hospice Care

Aging With Dignity is a private, non-profit organization best known for its Five Wishes advance directive, which helps individuals and families better plan for and receive the kind of care they want during times of serious illness. Five Wishes is a document that helps you express how you want to be treated if you are seriously ill and not able to speak for yourself. All of a person's needs are addressed: medical, personal, emotional, and spiritual.

The American Hospice Foundation strives to improve access to quality hospice care through public education, professional training, and consumer advocacy. The organization supports programs that serve the needs of terminally ill and grieving individuals of all ages. It publicizes hospice concepts through training, education, and outreach, promoting services, and initiating research on consumer needs and preferences in end-of-life care.

The Web site offers information about death and dying and related grief and grieving processes. The "Grief Zone" has links to readings grouped into categories such as grief and kids, grief on the job, hospice information and support, and grief and faith.

Caring Connections, a program of the U.S. National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), seeks to improve care at the end of life. Caring Connections provides free resources, including educational brochures, advance directives and hospice information, and a toll-free help line for people looking for quality end-of-life information.

The Hospice Association of America (HAA) seeks to heighten the public visibility of hospice services. HHA offers a number of helpful, practical publications for people who are considering hospice, including consumer guides, fact sheets, historical perspectives, and other background information. The Web site offers information from the legislative, regulatory, research, legal, and public relations departments, including "Hospice Facts and Statistics."

The U.S. National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) offers information on local hospice and palliative care programs across America. NHPCO is committed to improving end-of-life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of improving quality of life for dying people and their loved ones.