Crossing Over Narratives of Palliative Care

Crossing Over provides a unique view of patients, families, and their caregivers striving together to maintain comfort and hope in the face of incurable illness. The narratives weave together emotions, physical symptoms, spiritual concerns, and the stresses of family life, as well as the professional, and personal challenges of providing hospice and palliative care. Based on a vast amount of participant-observation and in-depth interviews, it captures the breathtaking diversity of peoples aspirations and ideals as they face death and the views of the professionals who care for them.

This volume presents a series of case narratives, following individual patients and families throughout the course of illness and death in the context of hospice and palliative care. Using a variety of qualitative research methods, including participant-observation, interviews, and journal-keeping, the experiences, perceptions, and feelings of the patient, the family and a range of caregivers are recorded, providing the reader with rich, multi-textured narratives. Going beyond conventional case reports in Medicine, typically concentrating on symptoms and treatment, these narratives depict how individuals find personal meaning in illness, and how this influences the experience and outcome of care.

1 - Introduction
2 - When the Storm of a Lifetime Hits in Mid-Dance
3 - Bonds Through Thick and Thin
4 - Burdens from the Past
5 - The Price of a Death of One's Own
6 - Who Am I?
7 - "I'm Allowed to be Happy Even Though I'm Dying"
8 - "I Want to Die At Home"
9 - Jagged Edges
10 - Total Pain and the Despair of an Unlived Life
11 - A Question of Denial?
12 - "Like Lazarus, He Came Back From the Dead"
13 - Trying to Live and Die Well
14 Richard Johnson - Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night
15 - Do I Really Belong in a Hospice Program Yet?
16 - A Study in Faith
17 - Living and Dying With God
18 - A Private Matter
19 - "It Was Not A Peaceful Death"
20 - The Death of a Child
21 - Another Triumph of the Spiritual Over the Practical
22 - Research Methods and Educational Resources
23 - Authors' Comments and Questions for Discussion
24 - Index of Themes