Among Friends: Hospice Care for the Person with AIDS - Softcover

Buckingham ( First American Hospice ), a physician in Good Thunder, Minn., and dean of the College of Health and Human Performance at Mankato State University, has spent 15 years treating terminally ill patients. Initially, his practice focused on cancer patients, but in recent years he has paid increasing attention to people with AIDS. Here the doctor re-evaluates the traditional medical attitude that views the dying as "them" and the living as "us,"29 arguing instead for the treatment of patients and their families together--one of the basic tenets of hospice care. Once used primarily by cancer patients, hospices now provide those in the final stages of AIDS with a loving and caring environment where they can live out their remaining days. The book offers an overview of the AIDS hospice movement, from the history and philosophy of hospices to the unique difficulties of caring for AIDS patients: their fear of the AIDS illness, in its erratic progression, and its usual conclusion. Case histories cited are frustratingly brief--they don't give a personal sense of the AIDS patients or their families. But with the number of Americans afflicted with AIDS ? as is, suggests AIDS victims are members of a different race or species than the rest of us--the us/them outlook deplored above, right? expected to reach 480,000 by 1993109 , this book could not be more timely.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The World Health Organization predicts that AIDS will be the major cause of death worldwide in the 1990s. The final stages of AIDS are devastating for the patient and his or her loved ones, while at the same time taxing on our already overburdened healthcare system. In Among Friends , Buckingham, a leader in the hospice movement, discusses the history and philosophy of hospice care, with special emphasis on its benefits for AIDS patients. He explains how a hospice can provide care at a lower cost than an acute care facility, while also giving much-needed emotional support for the patient and the family. Buckingham outlines steps in setting up a hospice program, pointing out important emotional, social, and ethical questions to be addressed. This is a valuable resource for healthcare professionals, AIDS patients, and concerned loved ones. For all medical collections.
-KellyJo Houtz Parish, Univ. of Missouri-Kansas City Sch. of Medicine Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.