Recommended Reading: Finish Strong
Conversations around death have long been taboo in America. No one wants to talk about a loved one’s death, let alone their own. But death is inevitable, and author Barbara Coombs Lee wants us to use that knowledge to prepare properly. Her new book Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End challenges readers to live true to their values to the very end.
Finish Strong is not just another book encouraging readers to complete an advance directive. Instead, Coombs Lee encourages readers to find a “Partner Doctor” who will treat them as a whole person, honoring their values and priorities and speaking to them with candor so they can make the most informed decisions on their care.
She also speaks frankly about the costs – financially, physically, and emotionally – of overtreatment and encourages readers to take a hard look at what treatments will truly provide a benefit in line with their values and priorities.
Hospice – with its focus on patient wishes and a team-based approach to care – is explained as well as other end-of-life options that all offer the goal of patient-driven care and a peaceful death.
Coombs Lee bases Finish Strong on her decades as a clinician, policymaker, and healthcare advocate with the hope of empowering people to avoid needless suffering. She encourages the reader to become an advocate for themselves and others.
As she says, “In a better future, the individuals affected, not their doctors, will align their own values and priorities and decide whether any offered treatment carries a sufficient benefit, or merely imposes a burden too great to accept.”
Finish Strong by Barbara Coombs Lee is available at Amazon.com and everywhere books are sold.
To learn more about how Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care supports patients approaching end of life, please call 1-888-564-3405.
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