Describes a Texas elementary school's efforts to cope with the special needs of Kenneth, a fourth grader slowly dying of kidney cancer. Besides learning their subjects like other students, Kenneth's classmates learned how to care. Every student volunteered to be Kenneth's assistant and was enriched by the boy's positive attitude and determination…

Explores issues related to "right to die." Makes case for counselors to assist clients and families with concerns related to refusal or withdrawal of medical treatment in cases of terminal illness or in cases where quality of life is severely impaired such as permanent comatose state. Presents historical, ethical, and legal perspectives.…

Suggests and describes a six-session group for people with AIDS. Each session is related to a theoretical base and includes a related activity. Sessions are intended to meet psychological needs of the dying. In evaluations, participants recommend the format to others with AIDS. Includes 25 references. (Author/CRR)

In an effort to address the stressors accompanying work with the dying, a special "Phoenix" group for caregivers is introduced. Planning considerations, group format, and accompanying structured activities are presented. Describes individual sessions which focus on mourning, transition from mourning to disengaging, disengaging, transition from…

Conducted pilot survey of 64 patients with late stage malignancy who had signed living wills. Found that 70.3 percent were grateful for opportunity to sign living will and maintain autonomy over their terminal care, 20.3 percent were either apparently indifferent or unwilling to discuss issue, and 9.4 percent appeared disturbed by their signing of…

Reviews novels dealing with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, noting that their perspectives on death can be extracted through content analysis. Concludes that, overall, these novels present weak symbolization about death with rituals that are not highly elaborated and that complex images of the afterlife are not offered.…

Notes that suicide is common in old age, but public opinion remains negative. Following a review of theories of suicide and summary of arguments against suicide, constructs argument for why elderly have unique claim to an ethical, unobstructed suicide. Claim rests on their "developmental autonomy," based on experience and wisdom of the elderly.…

Explores sexual needs and expression of gay men with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Explores several potential positive functions of sustained sex life for these men and factors that inhibit sexual expression. Discusses issues influencing social work practice related to sexual needs of this growing population. Presents suggestions…

Examined perceptions of 20 physicians and 20 nurses of need for, feasibility of, and value of regulations and legislation to govern dying process. Found little unanimity in their attitudes. Some believed such regulations were needed, but others believed they would seriously compromise good patient care. Also found disagreement on who should…

A review of studies on death awareness among children who are healthy, chronically ill, and terminally ill reveals that children with life-threatening diseases demonstrate increased understanding of death. In contrast, healthy and chronically ill children appear to require certain age, cognitive development level, or intelligence thresholds to…

As the members of the health care team who spend the most time with patients who are facing death, nurses are aware of the need for improved end-of-life (EOL) care and have identified resources to achieve that goal by improving education. A survey of 725 nursing faculty and state boards indicates an awareness of the need for improved EOL care and…

Data were collected from 213 nurses and 61 social workers at major hospitals across Israel. Whereas nurses reported being more involved in the daily care of terminally ill patients, social workers reported being more involved in discussions with patients and family members. Nurses were more willing than social workers to use artificial feeding and…

Ethical dilemmas are inherent in every health care setting. A sample of hospice social workers with no direct access to a hospice ethics committee (N = 110) was surveyed regarding ethical issues in hospice care, how the issues were managed, and the extent to which social workers participated in resolution of ethical dilemmas. Common issues…

This article presents a review of the literature on counseling adults with terminal illness, particularly the literature on the nature of preparation that counselors and other professionals who attend to the needs of adults with a terminal illness require. The authors review information and findings from philosophical, psychological, practical,…

Finds that students who reported high communication apprehension (CAs) were less willing to communicate, less willing to volunteer, less willing to work with terminally ill patients, and felt less confident about their communication than low CAs, and disclosed less to terminally ill patients than did people in any other circumstance. (SR)