Hospice Care and the Bereavement Process in Two Countries: Experience from the United States and the Netherlands

Abstract

The authors examine the bereavement process within hospice programs in the United States and in the Netherlands. Topics covered include brief histories of hospice within each country, circumstances that constrain bereavement outcomes research, approaches to hospice bereavement services in each country including bereavement program protocols developed by the National Hospice Organization for programs in the United States, issues of bereavement care and physician-assisted suicide, and an overall comparison of hospice bereavement services in each country.