ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses cultural differences in attitudes toward death and dying and the importance of communication among family members, health care providers, and the dying person. It explains the changes in our relation to death due to longer life expectancy and an older society. People often experience a slow decline along with intense crises that lead to death. Dying can include pain, delirium, swallowing problems, loss of mental function, and other forms of discomfort. Dying in old age makes special demands on health care providers, family members, and older people themselves. Critics of the hospice model say that it has institutionalized death. The dying process depends on many things—a person's age, the illness, the individual's will to live, and the treatments used to fight or manage the disease. The hospice welcomes visitors, including children, and allows families to cook for their dying relatives if they want to.
