A.R. Schiller is a home-based hospice social worker in a large American metropolitan area. Prior to working in hospice, she conducted research in gerontology and medical education. She has a Ph.D., as well as Masters degrees in Social Work and Sociology. She has been a Fellow of the National Institute on Aging and of the Maclean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Currently, she has a spouse, two young kids, too many pets, and one easily locatable lint roller. At any given time, she is likely also to have at least one package of tissues, several snacks, lipbalm, a mug of lukewarm tea, hand sanitizer, and some cat and/or dog fur on her person. She does not have any particular religious affiliation.
When not visiting patients or writing in the third person, A.R. Schiller is working on a book about her experiences in hospice. To that end, she is dipping her toes in the blogosphere to share what she knows and, hopefully, keep her on track with her writing (rewarding herself with chocolate was not working). She does not claim to be an expert on end-of-life care, though she is working on becoming more of one. She has started an End of Life bookgroup at her hospice, and has listed the books they have discussed thus far in the right hand column. If you have book suggestions, or suggestions or comments of any nature (related to this blog!) please contact her using the contact form, also in the right hand column. She would love to hear from you.
This blog’s target audience is individuals who are plagued with mortality. A.R. Schiller is hopeful that this population is sufficiently large to justify her efforts. She feels that there is often fear and misunderstanding around death and end of life care, and she hopes to play a small part in bringing these discussions out into the open by writing about these topics in an easily accessible way. She believes that hospice is a hidden gem and wants to do her part to promote appreciation, acceptance and a greater understanding of it. Her initial posts will focus on hospice education, which she hopes will be a resource for those who are considering hospice or may just be curious about it. Eventually, she will also use this blog as a forum to discuss her reactions and thoughts on working with a very diverse group of people during a very vulnerable time. Those posts may be of special interest to those currently working in the field. She plans to publish a “column” every Monday, allowing her to indulge in the fantasy that it is the 90’s and she is still writing for her college paper. As such, if you subscribe to her blog, (which you can do in the right hand column), she is unlikely to enlighten/bother you more than once a week.