Rose Carmen Goldberg Spotlights Exodus of Hospice Care Workers and Calls for Investment in End-of-Life Care

Rose Carmen Goldberg (’16), California Deputy Attorney General and Lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law, contributed an Idea to The Boston Globe recounting her experience as a hospice companion and pointing to the critical shortage of hospice resources and medical professionals to support patients through end-of-life care (“No One Should Die Alone,” Jan. 7). “Sitting at the deathbeds of Juan and others, I saw how hospice care sustains human connection and affirms everyone’s worth no matter how long they have left. But now, even as the pandemic has raised awareness about the harms of isolation and the importance of end-of-life care, access to hospice is under threat. . . . [W]e need to rebuild our hospice workforce by paying salaries that reflect the difficulty and value of end-of-life services. We should also support hospice’s long-term future by increasing training on palliative and end-of-life care in medical and nursing schools, to counteract the scarcity of specialists. . . . And we need to better invest in hospice for this essential care to be here when it’s our time to go.”
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