Health Library

The Health Library is a collection of health and wellness resources created for learning and accessibility. Select a topic below for related health information or search for a topic in the search bar for more information on other medical conditions.

Hospice Care

  • Provides links to information about advance care planning. Includes links on advance directives, palliative care and hospice, finding a health care agent, and dealing with grief or dementia.

  • It's common to have a lot of questions if you're thinking about hospice. Knowing more may help.

  • It's hard to have good days when being sick makes you feel sad, lonely, uncomfortable, or scared. Your quality of life can suffer, not just in your body, but also in your mind and spirit. Palliative (say "PAL-lee-uh-tiv") care is the field of medicine that helps give you more good days by providing care for those...

  • Discusses decisions related to care near the end of life. Discusses choosing where and what kind of care you want. Covers who will make decisions if you can't. Info on advance directives and need for durable power of attorney.

  • Once you make the decision to seek hospice care, make your search easier by using this checklist to find out about different programs. Add to it as you think of items that are important to you, and cross off those items that are not useful. Make a copy of this checklist for each program that you plan to consider. Have...

  • Discusses hospice care, which includes medical, emotional, and spiritual care for people who are in the last stages of a serious illness. Guides through decision to seek hospice care. Covers how to choose a program. Covers end-of-life legal issues.

  • The end of life may be months, weeks, days, or hours. It is a time when many decisions about treatment and care are made for patients with cancer. It is important for families and healthcare providers to know the patient's wishes ahead of time and to talk with the patient openly about end-of-life plans. This will...

  • When you learn you have advanced cancer, you're faced with many decisions about your end-of-life care. Talking about these decisions early can make it easier on you and your family later. The following are some questions you may want to think about: What's important to you during this time? Is it most...

  • Guides through decision to stop treatment that can prolong your life. Discusses choosing what kind of care you want. Covers factors that may affect your decision, such as type of illness. Includes an interactive tool to help you make your decision.

  • Medicare is a health insurance program for people 65 years of age and older, for some people younger than 65 who have disabilities, and for people with long-term (chronic) kidney failure treated with dialysis or a transplant. Medicare is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the United...

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