Ira Byock is truly the rock star of palliative and hospice care. And his new book should be in every home in America.

The Best Care Possible is Dr. Byock’s personal rallying cry for members of the Baby Boomer generation to reclaim and de-medicalize the dying process, just as we did when we started having babies in the 1960s. Because, for the first time in history, the number of old people is about to surpass the number of younger generations—with potentially disastrous consequences for our national economy and accustomed way of life.

The way we approach the end of life has created a dire circumstance that is not going to go away. “We’re running out of time,” he says, “for cultural and social maturation.” It’s time that we take concerted action and change our attitudes about how we treat terminal illness. We must face the fact and the way in which people die, and Boomers are the ones to make it happen.

Earlier this spring, I had the privilege of being present for the launch of Byock’s new book. Addressing a group of 200 palliative care physicians, medical and non-medical caregivers, and fans of his work, he painted a staggering picture of modern-day health care.  Medical technology has allowed us to help people live longer, but the tragedy is that we have not simultaneously helped them live better.

In fact, what we have actually done is to invent a culture of chronic illness. Most seniors now live with a variety of chronic illnesses—any one of which might have killed them as little as 20 years ago. But today, those growing numbers living into their 80s, 90s, and even 100s find their lives dominated by trips to the emergency room, appointments with specialists who prescribe expensive medications, and increasing frailty that limits their quality of life.

Dr. Byock reminds us that, despite the fact that no one is immortal, we resist dying. This is not necessarily a bad thing, except for the concurrent fact that we have changed the course of dying by increasing the burden of illness. The challenge is to balance medical advances with the fact that we don’t leave this world alive. How can we make the best of the worst of situations?

The bottom line, says Byock, is that there is too much suffering going on because we are dealing with a disease treatment system, not a health care system. Despite the desire of over 90 percent of individuals to die peacefully at home in familiar surroundings in the presence of loved ones and with their pain managed, 75 percent of them don’t. Fifty percent of Americans die in hospitals. And even though the awareness of the benefits of palliative and hospice care is increasing, 18-20 percent of terminal patients in the U.S. still die in the ICU, continuing to receive treatment that in most cases only prolongs the agony of dying.

Byock ascribes malice to no one. In story after beautifully-told story, he demonstrates that love is still the number one motivating factor—even in a broken system. People go into medicine because they want to help others. Even the seriously ill don’t want to be dead. The problem is that well-meaning physicians and family members tend to equate the most care with the best care. And, especially as patients near the inevitable end of their lives, that is simply not the case.

Too many people are continuing to receive too much treatment with too much suffering for too long into a terminal illness. And just stating that raises the ire of folks on both sides of the culture wars what have paralyzed the debate. Rather than focusing on the fact that nobody wants to be in a nursing home, words such as “dignity” and “pro-life” have become polluted by political agendas that only delay implementation of solutions that are already working when patients are involved in their health care choices.

Palliative and hospice care are, in fact, the only places where the health care system is actually working because they combine the best of medical advances in pain and acute symptom management with the best of compassionate caring. Recognizing that serious illness and dying are both profoundly personal processes, palliative care and hospice workers engage patients and families in discussions of treatment options, helping them to articulate their preferences and put into place directives that will ensure that their wishes are honored, even if they can no longer speak for themselves.

Education and conversation are the keys to solving what is no longer a future challenge. Ten thousand Baby Boomers are turning 65 each day. And over 3 million of us have already left this earth. Those of us who worry about caring for our aging parents and who are perhaps even more concerned about the future of our own care must educate ourselves about what it means to receive palliative and hospice care.

And we need to demand that our physicians likewise receive proper training in medical schools that are still more focused on the beginning of life rather than its end. In his book launch presentation, Dr. Byock pointed out that most medical school curricula still include 200 hours of OB-GYN instruction and almost no end-of-life training. “As far as I know,” he said, “only 50 percent of the population is at risk for an obstetrical experience while 100 percent of us are going to die.”

Just as citizens in the 1960s changed the way babies are born, we must now balance the best of what medicine has to offer with the best of our humanity when it comes to helping our loved ones and our selves die in relative comfort, with dignity and compassionate support of the most profound journey any of us will ever make in this life.

We need better laws that do not force families and physicians into either/or decisions about curative treatment and palliative care. We need to promote the understanding that palliative care is not the same as hospice and that hospice is not “giving up.” We need to help our health care system become more patient centered, realizing that when patients are allowed to decide for themselves what “best care” really means, they often choose less treatment, fewer tests and medications, more focus on comfort, and fewer invasive procedures. In addition to higher patient and family satisfaction, the cost of treatment decreases dramatically.

Dr. Byock knows his medicine and practices it passionately to offer each of his patients the best care possible for their unique situation and preferences. “Teach me who you are,” he says to them, “and I will help you.” He wants persons who are ill and their loved ones to see their dignity in his eyes and to feel their worth through his actions.

This is the kind of care we have a right to expect and a duty to demand. And we are the only ones who can do it. Ira Byock has issued the call to action. For the sake of our loved ones, the financial stability of our country, and our own compassionate care at the end of life, we simply must answer.

To learn more about Dr. Ira Byock, his books and his ongoing work, see his website at www.irabyock.org.

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