Practical Guidebook to Death & Grief

New Book Removes Mystery from End-of-Life Choices

Nearly 8,000 people die every single day in the United States. As individuals, and as a nation, we are poorly prepared to handle the “Silver Tsunami” of aging Baby Boomers and the onslaught of chronic diseases affecting all ages: Only 30 percent of the adult population has filed any official paperwork about their preferences for end of life, and even fewer have had a discussion with friends or family about how they want to die, what they consider good quality of life, or how they want to be remembered.

Living Well, Dying Well: A guide to choices, costs & consequences aims to solve that problem. As profound as it is practical, the new book by Judy Stevens-Long, PhD, and Dohrea Bardell, PhD, outlines the many choices available today, from how to extend a healthy life span to how to plan a funeral to what to say to people who are dying. Based on the latest research, it’s packed with all the information you need to reshape the end-of-life experience for everyone involved.

Dr. Judy Stevens-Long

Authors Judy Stevens-Long, PhD, a developmental psychologist and Fielding faculty emerita, and alum Dohrea Bardell, PhD, a Fellow at Fielding’s Institute for Social Innovation and Lifestyle Medicine specialist, have written the book in a conversational style with anecdotal stories, and designed it to be read out of sequence, depending on what the reader needs most – or needs first. They tackle:

• how to start a conversation about end of life with your family and friends, including a review of forms and legalities
• how caretakers manage their lives and the lives of those they care for
• how funerals are changing, and what the new options are
• 

  Dr. Dorhea Bardell

  the considerations of dying at home vs. dying in a hospital

• how different types of death can impact grief and bereavement
• a look at the great mysteries of dying, from deathbed visions to near-death experiences

“Thank you,” said a Hospice volunteer who read Living Well, Dying Well. “It has taken me years to learn all that is here in one book.”

The end of life holds abundant possibilities of love, nurturing and dignity for both body and soul, and for both the dying and those who care for them. This guide shows you how to get them.