Nursing Care at the End-of-Life: Videos

In Dundedin Hospital staff are working to improve end of life treatment in pateints with COPD and other chronic conditions. Professor Robin Taylor wants to change the way that we care for people with long-term, but inevitably fatal medical conditions as they reach the end of their lives. Instead of writing another academic paper, he decided to take a completely different tack and commission a film about the issues.

"We wanted to make this film because we realised that the care we were providing to patients with respiratory deisease at the end of life was missing the mark, and I don't think we are alone. Two families expressed their appreciation but also their frustration at the way their loved one had been loved after in Dundein Hospital, and so we began to change the way we do things. We are now much more attentive to the issue of 'dying well', and we are still working at it. We believe that good end of life care is worth striving for. This film tells the story of one pateint and his family." Professor D Robin Taylor.

Directed by Paul Trotman.

Death A Love Story is a timely documentary that looks into the gift that death offers when we are able to put our fears, confusions and denial aside and simply sit and listen to our loved ones as they pass. It confronts our fears of the greatest unknown and reveals the moment to moment grace possible in living a life.

The documentary covers the intimate and colorful journey through the last year of the life of Mel Howard, Hollywood producer and actor, former Head of NYU's Graduate Film School, Founding Associate Director of The American Film Institute and Chairman of Boston University's School of Broadcasting and Film, filmed by his wife, Michelle LeBrun. Mel and Michelle's journey, with its search for dignity and grace, is contrasted with the world of medicine both traditional and alternative. Underlying the cinema verite glimpses of frustrations and chaos, is the palpable growth of their faith in life and love. Through their intimate and compelling story, we discover the psychological, spiritual, and sociological aspects of death in American culture, covering such issues as loss, end-of-life care and counseling, grief counseling, palliative care, medical ethics, epidemiology, and theological issues.

In the end, Mel shares his death and discoveries about life with the most extraordinary clarity and wisdom. This final segment of the film is unique in its treatment of death. Michelle audio-taped their final conversation together, which is put to poetic imagery illustrative of the transcendent nature of this exchange.

Profoundly uplifting and thought-provoking, Death: A Love Story portraits the rite of passage we all must one day face. In all its irony, power and poetry, it shows us that life's greatest gifts can sometimes be found in the seed of death.

The seniors in this film swim, dance and play golf. They are devoted to families and grandchildren, they read and engage with the world. Muriel and June lead rich, full lives but they intend to deliberately end their lives when they think the time is right. Dr. Opie, a retired surgeon who is now incapacitated, has prepared himself to end his life in two years when he thinks his life will no longer be worth living. They are among an increasingly activist minority of elderly Australians who say they want to end their lives before they are overtaken by frailty, illness or dependence. Such a radical step, they claim, is a final act of self-determination and a human right. "This is about the dignity of the end of my life," says Muriel. "I just don t want to end up as a vegetable. I don t want to be locked up in a nursing home where all you get is bingo," says June. Most of the elderly people in the film are supported in their fateful decisions by spouses or adult children. But in some cases there is intense anguish. We meet a father and son who love each other deeply but are completely at odds on this issue. The father thinks life should end when quality leaves it. His son, a committed Christian, would do anything to change his father's mind. Some doctors and ethicists are disturbed by what they see as the extremism of elderly people who take courses to learn how to commit suicide and even travel to Mexico to buy Nembutal, the recommended drug. Dr. Philip Nitschke, author of Exit Australia, teaches some of these courses. Dr. Rosanna Capoliagra asserts that depression is also a big factor. Professionals worry that the phenomenon reflects a growing view that to be old and in need of care is to lack dignity and to be a burden on society.