Death education in home hospice care in Japan

In the practice of home hospice care, death education for both patient and family is extremely important, although little information on its usefulnes s is available. In this study, the effects of death education under home ho spice care were analyzed for 16 patients who died at home. Death education for the patient and his/her family was given at least once in each phase of care, and at least four times in total. The acceptance of death by the pat ients was judged according to the way they spent their remaining time, to t heir attitudes, and to their hope for a life after death. Fourteen of 15 pa tients appeared to accept their own death. An autopsy was performed in five of the 16 cases. In one case, the doctor recommended an autopsy to the fam ily; in the other cases, it was performed in accordance with the patient's or family's wish. As the goal of death education in home hospice care is th e acceptance of death by both patient and family, our methods of death educ ation appear to be effective.