Customer Reviews

Where Souls Meet : Communicating with the Terminally Ill

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the privedge to work with Mr. Dillion Woods on a Hospice Case; this past July 2000. He had been there a year already, driving, organizing and helping the patient and family cope. I couldn't believe that everything was running so smoothly. I read his book and even thou I am a practicing RN; I was amazed at all of the ideas and suggestions he had. His book is for everyone. We are all going to die. Lets do it with dignity. Using Dillons book can help guide you before you transition. A MUST get book. Who wouldn't want to be prepared?

As a Certified Hospice Nurse and Hospice Administrator I have access to many tools to help both staff and loved ones through the grief journey. Where Souls Meet is both compelling and insightful. From introduction to appendix this book provides each reader with guidance and support through the most difficult time most of us will experience - the loss of a loved one. As we anticipate death, like life, we are faced with many challenges and obstacles. This book offers both inspiration and suggestions to help ease the fear. Dillon writes and shares with a level of emotion and realism that will help both caregivers and professionals alike. Share this book with a friend!

While Dillon Wood's book is primarily written to help ease the miscommunication and lack of communication with the terminally ill; he has given those of us surviving in the limbo of a survivable yet possibly fatal disease a guide of etiquette also. As a cancer survivor some of my darkest memories were not always the treatments or the setbacks but the reactions from fellow humans. Mr. Woods above all explains that we are alive until we are not. A gentle touch, a word of love and above all not being made to feel sub human by condescension are in themselves the tools of respect.

As an oncology chaplain at UCLA Medical Center, I am always looking for practical, helpful, and meaningful resources that I can use to help patients, their caregivers, and other health care professionals deal with the overwhelming challenges that serious illness can present. "Where Souls Meet" is one of the best resources I have read on this subject. It serves as a deeply moving and personal guide that will lead the reader through the journey that all of us, in one way or another, will someday travel.

AT A TIME WHEN PEOPLE CAN FEEL THERE IS NO HOPE, COMES A BEAUTIFUL RAY OF SUNSHINE. DILLON'S INSITE AND DIRECTION IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR. AS A HOSPICE VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR, THIS BOOK HAS PUT NEW INSPIRATION INTO MY JOB. I HAVE A MUCH BETTER UNDERSTANDING AND INSITE INTO HOW TO HELP OUR VOLUNTEERS, OUR PATIENT'S AND FAMILIES DEAL WITH THE MOST DIFFICULT TIME OF THEIR LIFE. HAVING LOST CLOSE FAMILY AND FRIENDS PERSONALLY, WHERE SOLES MEET HAS HELPED ME RESOLVE PERSONAL ISSUES AND HAS GIVEN ME A PEACE IN MY HEART I HAVE NOT HAD BEFORE. I PLAN TO INCORPORATE THIS BOOK INTO OUR TRAINING CLASSES AND HAVE COPIES AVAILABLE FOR OUR PATIENTS. I HAD THE GREAT HONOR OF MEETING DILLON EARLIER THIS MONTH, AND I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO HAS A CHANCE TO HEAR HIM IN CONCERT OR AT A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT TO DO SO WITHOUT HESITATION.

This is a most excellant handbook that provides guidance and direction for family and caregivers of terminally ill people. It is the best and most thorough study that I have found on this subject. It clearly defines how to relate to a person who has been diagnosed with such an illness on the spiritual, emotional, and cognitive levels. It should be made a requirement for every hospice and healthcare worker who relates to terminally ill patients on a regular basis. Families with a terminally ill member will find the book most helpful. It will answer many of their questions and allow them to have a better informed understanding of the patient's emotional needs. It should be made available to all families who are caring for a terminally ill person. Besides focusing on our relational and vberbal behavior when relating to the terminally ill, it gives very practical suggestions. For example, appendice C gives suggestions on what to look for when hiring helpers for patient care. Appendice D has ideas and examples of how to make lists and charts for everyday monitoring.

Many times caregivers think only in terms of what they can offer the terminally ill patient. One chapter gives important lessons that the caregivers can learn from the terminally ill patient.

Where Souls Meet offers an enormously practical guide to anyone experiencing their own or someone elses dying process, as well as a thoughtful invitation to consider the quality of consciousness one brings to relationship in general. It's said that we die much the same way we live, and Dillon's intimate sharing of his own experience enables the reader to touch their own conflicting feelings around a very difficult and inevitable part of life with compassion, humor, and blessed acceptance. Reading this book creates a larger space in which to be human - a great gift at any stage of living.

I have been fortunate enough in my life, to not have lost too many people. Yet, I've had a very close friend saying goodbye to his parent due to the uncureable disease Cancer. I was searching for a way to help him. I found this book, and had the opportunity to pass it on. Coping with something like this can be impossible to talk about. And I found that it comforted him and helped in ways I couldn't. It gave him guidance and strength. I commend Dillon Woods, the author for his humanitarian approach in life, and for taking the time to reach out to so many people who in times like these are often abandoned.

After reading this book, I was faced with the reality that everyone will have to take care of someone who is nearing death at one point in their life. Before I read this book, I researched the author and found that he had been taking care of the elderly for years and had been a care-taker to many people throughout his life. He was walking the walk. I myself have never been in a situation where I would need to guide a loved one into their final days on this earth. It was never a topic of conversation either, until I read this book that a friend recommended to me. After I read this book, I was shocked at what I had never thought about. The book teaches you how to nurture a loved one who might be coming upon their final days. It talks about situations that you would never think of that are very important in the last days of a persons life. I will have this book in my home until the day that it is time for me to pass. It is an invaluable tool that everyone can use and benefit from. I would recommend this to everyone, whether they know someone who is dying or not.

This book offers the very information people really need at the most difficult time in their life. Talking to other people about someone dying is usually a frustrating experience - they just don't understand. This writer does, and addresses issues only someone who has been through it understands. It's a great resource and a real lifeline for the living to the dying.