Heart and Soul

BBC World Service Online

Heart and Soul: Hospice Chronicles: Episode 1

Religion & Ethics

What does it take to be a hospice volunteer, working with the  elderly and terminally ill?

Two hospice volunteers in Michigan emerge from their training and take on their first assignments, visiting the elderly and terminally ill in their homes.

It's been over forty years since the first modern hospice, St. Christopher's, opened in a suburb of London. 

Since then, the model has been followed and millions of people around the world have chosen a hospice at the end of their lives, with many patients choosing to receive hospice care in their homes. 

Over the course of eight months, producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister followed two hospice volunteers through their training and first assignments in patients' homes in Michigan in the United States.

Trained to provide 'respite care,' the volunteers set out to give family members a break from their caretaking responsibilities. 

While Betty has a chance to visit Maimie, who is in her 90s and has lost the will to live, Joe sits with Preston while his exhausted wife has some time off from looking after her husband.

Produced by Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions, Michigan, USA.

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Personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

BBC World Service

Heart and Soul: Hospice Chronicles

Hospice Chronicles

Many people chose to end their lives in a hospice. We follow 2 hospice volunteers through their training and first assignments.

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