ABSTRACT

As life expectancy is increasing due to advanced biomedical sciences, people have increasingly paidattention to quality of life in the second half of life such as dying process, for instance, a good death.According to a number of studies on the good death, it would help older patients to die in dignity whilethey have sense of connectedness with their acquaintances. The sense of connectedness, which is a kind of belief about life after death, make the patients find solace and keep dignity when they die. WhileChochinov was working on the good death with the dying people, he developed a model of dignitytherapy to assist patients dealing with the imminent end of their lives for dying cancer patients. Attributesof the good death and how to implement in a community-based hospice setting were introduced in thisarticle. Dignity therapy allows patients to leave a formalized legacy document which contains history,meaning and value of their life to desired loved people and family members, and also makes them beable to maintain feelings of physical comfort, interpersonal connectedness, belonging, autonomy in the faceof impending death.