{"product_id":"dear-life-9781863958165","title":"Dear Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this short, powerful book, Karen Hitchcock shines a light on ageism in our society. Through some unforgettable case studies, she shows what care for the elderly and dying is really like - both the good and the bad. With honesty and deep experience, she looks at end-of-life decisions and over-treatment, frailty and dementia. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDear Life\u003c\/em\u003e is a moving and controversial argument against the creeping tendency to see the elderly as a \"burden\"-difficult, hopeless, expensive and homogenous. While we rightly seek to curb treatment when it is futile, harmful or against a patient's wishes, this can sometimes lead to limits on care that suit the system rather than the person. Doctors may declare a situation hopeless when it may not be so. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe must plan for a future when more of us will be old, Hitchcock argues, with the aim of making that time better, not shorter. And we must change our institutions and society to meet the needs of an ageing population. \u003cem\u003eDear Life\u003c\/em\u003e is a landmark book by one of Australia's most powerful writers. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"The elderly, the frail are our society. They are our parents and grandparents, our carers and neighbours, and they are every one of us in the not-too-distant future . . . They are not a growing cost to be managed or a burden to be shifted or a horror to be hidden away, but people whose needs require us to change\" - Karen Hitchcock, \u003cem\u003eDear Life\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKaren Hitchcock is the author of the award-winning story collection \u003cem\u003eLittle White Slips \u003c\/em\u003eand a regular contributor to the \u003cem\u003eMonthly\u003c\/em\u003e. She is also a staff physician in acute and general medicine at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50363470151954,"sku":"9781863958165","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ef1b3428-fa50-4d37-bc5d-113aad5e1ad8.jpg?v=1728415598","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/dear-life-9781863958165","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}