The hottest Palliative Care Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Health & Wellness Topics

Paid content: Confessions of an orderly person

Wood From Eden • 528 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Palliative Care
  1. Someone who once knew nothing about accompanying dying people has learned practical and emotional ways to be present with them.
  2. A caregiver working as an orderly offers honest, personal confessions about what it’s like to support people at the end of life.
  3. The reflections are published as paid subscriber content, aimed at readers who pay for deeper, personal accounts.

The trouble with remission

Trevor Klee’s Newsletter • 1567 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Palliative Care
  1. Modern medicine often treats each disease separately and can produce remissions, but that piecemeal care can leave older people on a steady, downward health trajectory.
  2. Repeated lifesaving treatments can prolong life without restoring prior function or quality, resulting in chronic frailty and heavily medicalized lives.
  3. Healthcare should prioritize fixing underlying causes of aging and reward true healthspan improvements, which means agreeing on what 'longevity' means and finding reliable biomarkers and trial designs.

Can we make death better?

Random Minds by Katherine Brodsky • 131 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Palliative Care
  1. People who have near-death experiences often report calm, acceptance, or vivid spiritual sensations, which suggests the brain may have ways to ease the transition even if the exact causes aren’t proven.
  2. Much of the fear around death comes from the unknown, worries about meaning, pain, and being alone, so talking openly and making end-of-life plans can reduce suffering for both the dying and their loved ones.
  3. Dying can be improved by expanding palliative and hospice care, creating kinder, more beautiful environments, and offering emotional support like end-of-life doulas, volunteer companions, Death Cafés, and carefully studied therapies (including psychedelics) to ease pain and anxiety.

The Final Trip: Embracing Psychedelics in Terminal Care

Tripsitter • 139 implied HN points • 23 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Palliative Care
  1. Psychedelics are being embraced in end-of-life care facilities to provide relief from anxiety and existential distress in terminal patients.
  2. Research has shown that certain psychedelics can induce mystical experiences and offer patients a new perspective to accept their fate and find peace.
  3. Psychedelics are not about escapism but rather about helping individuals confront their mortality with clarity, acceptance, and reduced fear of death.

Help Bring Colin Home

Karlstack • 130 implied HN points • 05 Dec 24
🏥 Health Politics Palliative Care
  1. Colin is a 34-year-old man suffering from early onset Huntington's Disease, and he wants to return home to be with his family. His family believes that being at home will give him more comfort and dignity as he faces his illness.
  2. A fundraising campaign called 'Let's Bring Colin Home' is organized to cover legal costs and home care support. They want to help Colin transition from a care facility to his family's home, which requires financial assistance.
  3. The fundraiser highlights the importance of community support, as just a few donations can make a big difference. Even small contributions can help Colin receive the care he needs and improve his quality of life.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity: