Ten thousand crossroads : the path as I remember it / Balfour Mount.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mount, Balfour M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mount, Balfour M.

Royal Victoria Hospital (Montréal, Québec)--Employees--Biography.

Royal Victoria Hospital (Montréal, Québec).

Physicians--Canada--Biography.

Physicians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (657 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Montreal & Kingston, Canada ; London, England ; Chicago, Illinois : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"Recognized as the father of palliative care in North America, Balfour Mount facilitated a sea change in medical practice by foregrounding concern for the whole person facing incurable illness. In this intimate and far-reaching memoir, Mount leads the reader through the formative moments and milestones of his personal and professional life as they intersected with the history of medical treatment over the last fifty years. Mount's lifelong pursuit of understanding the needs of dying patients began during his training as a surgical oncologist at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital in the 1960s. He established the first comprehensive clinical program for end-of-life care in a teaching hospital in 1975 at McGill University's Royal Victoria Hospital, thus leading the charge for palliative medicine as a new specialty. His journey included collaboration with two storied healthcare innovators, British hospice pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders and American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, leading to a more fulsome understanding of the physical, psychosocial, and existential or spiritual needs of patients, their families, and their caregivers in the health care setting. This compelling narrative documents how the 'Royal Vic' team became internationally recognized as effective advocates of quality of life at the crossroad between life and death. From meetings with Viktor Frankl, the Dalai Lama and other teachers, to a memorable telephone chat with Mother Teresa, Mount recalls with appreciation, humour and humility, the places and people that helped to shed light on this universal human experience."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Beginning at 37

Queen's, 1957–63

Internship and Residency, 1963–68

Seasons of Our Discontent: Kingston, 1967–68

Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Jackson Labs, 1968–70

Joining the Royal Vic Team

“Where Were You in '72?” A Cold War Experience

The Needs of the Dying

Hospice Care: To Be or Not to Be

The Summer of 1974: Birding Coverage at St C.

First Steps

Moving on, 1977–80

Broken Open

Linda and Days in Which to Be

Medical Students and the Denial of Death

The Eighties: Wounded Healers a Decade On

The Nineties: Closing the Millennium

The Existential/Spiritual Domain Revisited

One More Case

The View from Here

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780228004912

0228004918

9780228004905

022800490X

OCLC:

1394872458