Patients and families facing the end of life often feel helpless: They don't know what to do or say, how to react or where to begin. For all those facing the uncertainty that comes with serious illness and dying, Handbook for Mortals offers the words, ideas, and actions that can give patients and families the confidence and strength they need to live life well. Using real and practical examples of situations that patients and families face, Dr. Joanne Lynn and a team of experts guide readers towards making sense of what can be a confusing and frightening time. The Handbook includes images, poetry, and quotes that inspire and help readers. Full of practical, hands-on advice for everything from pain and symptom management to advance care planning, from forgoing medical treatment to coping with events near death, Handbook for Mortals features information that patients can use to live comfortably and pursue meaningfulness, even in the shadow of death. It also includes guidance for family caregivers and loved ones, with advice on topics ranging from practical care to bereavement. Handbook for Mortals is warmly addressed to those who wish to approach the final years of life with greater awareness of what to expect and greater confidence about how to make the end of life a time of growth, comfort, and meaning. It provides equal measures of wise counsel and practical information. Readers will learn about the decisions they are likely to face, the choices available to them, where to look for help, how to ease pain and other symptoms, what to expect with specific diseases, and how the entire experience affects dying people, their families, and their friends. Equally important are the stories included here of how people have come to terms with dying, how they have faced their fears, made their choices, and found meaning and purpose. These give us moving, firsthand insights into a profoundly important process.

Joanne Lynn, MD is one of the first hospice physicians in the US, one of the major contributors to research and policy on care for the last phase of life, and a former professor at Dartmouth and George Washington University .
Joan Harrold, MD is the Medical Director/Vice President of Medical Services of Hospice of Lancaster County in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Janice Lynch Schuster is Senior Writer for Altarum Institute, where she specializes in writing about health care and public health. She has worked with Dr. Lynn since 1997 on efforts to improve end-of-life care.