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Mary S. Strong
Westwood, Mass

JAMA. 1996;275(16):1231-1232.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The SUPPORT project¹ seems to place the blame for the demonstrated breakdown in communication between physicians and patients squarely on the caregiver. Is this fair? I have spent much of the last 20 years working to empower people to take control of how they are cared for at the end of life. In so doing, I have met many caring nurses and physicians and seen the situations with which they are faced. If I were a physician in a hospital setting, I would hesitate to initiate the subject of end-of-life care if I had never communicated on such a difficult issue with the patient at an earlier time in a less-threatening setting. We must devise the means to make end-of-life care easier to broach. I suggest that when a patient arrives for an appointment with his or her physician, the patient can be asked to fill . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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