Providence Institute for Human Caring
Providence Health & Services established the Providence Institute for Human Caring and attracted national expert and advocate, Dr. Ira Byock, to lead its formation. The institute represents a major commitment by Providence to accelerate value-based and whole-person health care for frail elders, seriously ill or otherwise vulnerable patients and their families.
Praise from colleagues
Terry Tempest Williams
Author of “Refuge”
Having traveled this landscape with loved ones, taking care of individuals at the end of their life is both a privilege and a tremendous challenge, both physically and spiritually. We need a map. Ira Byock has created a map of compassionate intelligence for palliative care with grace. Through the power of story and his own intuitive sense of what dignity means to the dying, this is more than a manual, it is a godsend. It is also a call for health care with heart, conscience, and consequence.
BJ Miller, MD
Senior advisor to the Zen Hospice Project
This book is more relevant than ever. The country has been primed by more attention being paid to how we die, and at the same time to the ills of our healthcare system. Ira shows us how much better things could be. Not with exotic knowledge or more information, but by doing what we already know how to do. Given the nature of the subject, that means that Ira’s counsel has the power to affect every single one of us. Thrilling and daunting too, I realize, but far better than the alternative! And, thanks to Ira, we have a playbook.
Roshi Joan Halifax
Author, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center, Sante Fe, author of “Being with Dying”
This is an extraordinary and wise book on how dying people can be cared for. Written by a master clinician, a man of great compassion, Ira Byock has a vision of health care that is brilliant and kind.
Recent articles and op-eds
A Crash Course in Being Mortal
A Crash Course in Being Mortal Ira Byock, MD Medium, April 14, 2020 COVID-19 has rudely pulled us into a lucid dream in which we’re enrolled in that course on Contemplating Death we never signed up for. Class has already begun, we’re not prepared, and assignments are due. Daunting as the situation is, for those willing to do the coursework, the lessons may be both enlightening and immediately applicable.
While social distancing, do your other patriotic duty: have The Conversation about serious illness care
While social distancing, do your other patriotic duty: have The Conversation about serious illness careAngelo Volandes, MD; Aretha Delight Davis, MD, JD; and Ira Byock, MD, StatNews.com, April 7, 2020 Among the essential strategies for fighting Covid-19 is making sure that individuals who are most at risk of developing severe complications from it are properly informed about the potential benefits, expected burdens and limitations of available therapies, and that those who undergo intensive care and mechanical ventilation actually want these invasive interventions.