End-Of-Life Stories: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries

End-of-life experiences are often viewed in terms of only one perspective such as medicine. In this volume, a variety of end-of life experiences are presented and each case is analyzed from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. These range across a broad array of the helping professions, and disciplines such as information, law and the social sciences. The book provides a variety of narratives about end-of-life experiences contributed by members of the Wayne State University End-of-Life Interdisciplinary Project. Each of the narratives is then analyzed from several different disciplinary perspectives. These analyzes illustrate how specific end-of-life narratives can be viewed from different dimensions and helps students, researchers and practitioners see the important and varied meanings that end-of-life experiences have at the level of the individual, the family, and the community. The narratives include end-of-life experiences of individuals from a number of diverse backgrounds.

About the Author

Donald E. Gelfand, PhD, is a professor of sociology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and Coordinator of the Wayne State University End-of-Life Interdisciplinary Project (WSU-EOLIP). Richard Raspa, PhD, is a professor and graduate chair in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Sherylyn H. Briller, PhD, is an assistant professor of Anthropology and faculty associate in the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Stephanie Myers Schim, PhD, RN, APRN, CNAA, BC, is an assistant professor in the Wayne State University College of Nursing, Detroit, Michigan.