Expert to speak on giving care as death approaches

Nationally recognized hospice care expert Dr. Ira Byock will discuss how to improve end-of-life care for loved ones in a free lecture at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Ala Moana Hotel’s Hibiscus Room.

Byock, author of "Dying Well: The Prospect of Growth at the End of Life" and director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national grant program Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, is an outspoken advocate for humanity as death looms.

"We must ensure that competent medical evaluation is available," he said, "and appropriate treatments are offered and that comfort is ensured.

"But we can also ensure that people are visited, that their stories are heard, and that they know they are valued."

Many times, he has said, people have told him that the last part of their life has been among their most wonderful moments.

"I have seen people change in remarkable ways even as they die," he said.

"They do not become someone else, but somehow more themselves, often more accepting and forgiving of themselves, and more loving toward themselves and with others."

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