Reflections on Death
Buddhist Hospices & HIV/AIDS

Buddhist Hospice Directory

  • Amitabha Hospice Service (Auckland, New Zealand)

Hospice ‘Volunteer Caregiver’ support in all suburbs of greater Auckland.

Following the World Health Organization’s guidelines for palliative care, the NZ Palliative Care Strategy and the NZ Cancer Strategy for Palliative Care, we provide free practical help and companionship for those with progressive degenerative conditions / terminal illness with specially trained volunteers.

Contact person: Ecie Hursthouse

Amitabha Hospice
44 Powell Street, Avondale, Auckland 1026 New Zealand
Phone: 9-8283321, Fax 9-8283325
Email: office@amitabhahospice.org
Website: www.amitabhahospice.org

Tradition: Tibetan Buddhist but encourages non-sectarian approach
Affiliation: Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT)
Spiritual Director: Lama Zopa Rinpoche

  • Amitiyus Hospice Service (Byron Shire Region, Northern New South Wales, Australia)

Amitayus Hospice Service was formed in 1994/95 to fill a perceived service gap for those people wishing to remain at home whilst living with a life threatening illness. We are a not-for-profit organisation and registered as a Public Benevolent Institution. We are recognized as a service provider for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. We assist people to maintain control over there lives. We support people of all belief systems on a non-denominational and non-discriminatory basis.

Amitayus endeavours to provide comprehensive support for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our clients. Our volunteers work closely with medical practitioners, community and palliative care nurses and other community services. All our volunteer carers have graduated from the Amitayus Carers’ Training Course.

If you like to know more about Amitayus please contact us at:

Amitayus Hospice Service
P.O. Box 696 Mullumbimby NSW 2482
Phone/Fax: (02) 6684 3808
Email: amitayus@mullum.com.au

  • Association of Engaged Buddhists (Sydney, Australia)

The Association of Engaged Buddhists provides assistance and support to those who are suffering from serious or life-threatening illness throughout the Greater Sydney area. All major hospitals and hospices are visited by Sangha or volunteer members. The Association also provides a home visitation service to anyone requesting this service. Sangha and members provide guidance and instruction in meditation practice (including various healing practices) to people in their homes, hospices, or hospitals. They also assist in other ways such as pain relief, preparation for death and grief counselling.

Currently the Association is attempting to establish a live-in hospice/retreat centre in the Sydney area in order to provide more intensive assistance to those who might benefit from such an opportunity. Various fund-raising activities are taking place in order to realise this goal. Anyone who is interested or who would like to assist in establishing this centre can obtain more information from Sangha Lodge.

Inquires: Ven. Tejadhammo
Email: sanghalodge@bigpond.com
Phone/Fax: (02) 9590 3617
Sangha Lodge: 20 Victoria Street
Lewisham, Sydney, NSW 2049

  • Melbourne Zen Hospice (Melbourne, Australia)

The Melbourne Zen Hospice provides free home support and companionship
to persons of any age and background who are approaching the end of
life while continuing to live at home, as well as to their carers and
any family members who are living with them.

Inquiries and new referrals are always welcome and can be made via our
website or by contacting Seikan on 0410 827 027.

Melbourne Zen Hospice
PO Box 329, Albert Park, Vic.3206

Website: www.zen.org.au

  • Wheel of Life – Hospice Service (Kensington, WA, Australia)

Help for the Dying and Their Carers

Birth and death, sickness and health, are part of the reality of human existence. In particular, our attitude towards dying and death makes a great deal of difference to the way in which we experience them. Wheel of Life – Hospice Service offers training so that each of us can prepare for our own death.

Helping others wherever one can, according to their needs, is the true expression of compassion. Wheel of Life – Hospice Service aims to offer this gift of affection and love, companionship and emotional and spiritual support to those individuals and their families who are facing life-threatening illness, to the dying, to those who have died and to those who are left grieving.

The Coordinator of the Wheel of Life-Hospice Service is Venerable Losang Chodron.

Wheel of Life is a community service of the Hayagriva Buddhist Centre.
64 Banksia Terrace, Kensington, WA 6151.
Phone: (08) 9367 4817

Website: http://www.hayagriva.org.au/HayagrivasProgram/WheelOfLife/tabid/89/Default.aspx

  • Metta Institute (California, USA)

Inspired by the Buddhist tradition, Metta Institute was established to provide innovative education and professional training on spirituality in dying. Metta Institute’s primary program is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program from which has grown a national network of educators, advocates and guides for those facing life-threatening illness and the individuals and systems that serve them.

Our Institute was formed in 2004 as an outgrowth of the Zen Hospice Project. Our Director, Frank Ostaseski helped form ZHP in 1987 and guided the program for 17 years. The Metta faculty includes Ram Dass, Zoeketsu Norman Fischer, Rachel Naomi Remen MD and others

Metta Institute
Phone: 415-331-9600
PO Box 2710 Sausalito, CA. 94966
Website: www.mettainstitute.org

  • Anicca House (Santa Cruz, USA)

Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz

Anicca House creates a bond between compassionate awareness, spirituality and hospice care. Our goal is to provide compassionate Hospice Resources, such as shoppers, counseling, grief support, meditation instructors, massage, acupuncture, holistic healers, rieki and other caring services to people of low income with acute or chronic illness in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. We also provide emotional support to their loved ones. We care for all who seek our services, regardless of age, diagnosis or ability to pay. We welcome people of all spiritual paths.

Anicca House
134 Coloma Avenue
Santa Cruz CA. 95060 USA

Phone: (831) 420 – 1615
Email: mike@aniccahouse.org
Website: www.aniccahouse.org

  • Buddhist HIV/AIDS Projects (New York, USA)

The White Plum Buddhist AIDS Network is a non-profit group organised to facilitate resource sharing, information exchange and support for Buddhist groups and people with HIV-AIDS, and for those working in these communities.

Email: ohara@is.nyu.edu
Website:Buddhist HIV/AIDS Projects – Engaged Buddhism

  • Buddhist Lotus Hospice Care Foundation (Taiwan)

A Buddhist Hospice in Taiwan where Buddhist philosophy and practices are used to comfort and inspire the dying and the bereaved to develop spiritually and particularly to be reborn in Amitabha Buddha’s paradise.

The Buddhist Lotus Hospice Care Foundation (the Lotus Foundation ) was founded in July 1994. It was established by a group of Buddhist medical professionals and Buddhists working in hospitals, pharmacies and related professions. The Board consists of 15 members including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, monks and social workers. The Lotus Foundation had four major goals: (1) To provide Buddhist spiritual care; (2) To promote filial doctrine; (3) To relieve the patient’s suffering and the family’s bereavement; (4) To establish a model of Buddhist terminal care in Taiwan.

Website: www.lotushcf.org.tw

  • The Buddhist Hospice Trust (London, England)

Hospice in the Heart. “Meeting the spiritual needs of seriously ill and dying Buddhists.”

The Buddhist Hospice Trust aims to provide compassionate care and companionship for the living, the dying and the bereaved. The Trust is non-sectarian and is open to Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. We also offer informal support and information to whomsoever may be concerned to better understand Buddhist approaches to living and dying.

The Trust is not a “bricks-and-mortar” set-up. There is no hospice building, no paid staff, formal hierarchy or central office. Being a small and rather scattered organisation, we rely on the willingness of members to be proactive, to network in their own localities, and to keep in touch with each other by whatever means they can. Increasingly this means via the Internet.

Website: www.buddhisthospice.org.uk

Emergency Contacts:

Peter Goble
Email: pgoble@buddhisthospice.org.uk
Tel: 01268 741419 or 01268 775521

Dennis Sibley
Email: dsibley@buddhisthospice.org.uk

  • Maitreya Hospice Care (North Queensland, Australia)

The motto of our organisation is “Caring for the Carer”. We are a non profit group of volunteers who give in home respite to the carers of palliatively ill loved ones. All our volunteers are trained and screened appropriately to give support the families and carers of those who are dying. If you would like more information about our organisation please contact the coordinator on the above number.

Coordinator: Ven. Rinchen Wangmo

Maitreya Hospice Care
348 Severin Street Cairns (near Parramatta park) QLD
Phone/Fax: (07) 40512138
Web site: www.yuloling.com

  • Shagged P’hande Ling (Maine, USA)

Chagdud P’hande Ling, an intergenerational Buddhist community dedicated to serving the elderly, ill, and dying, under the direction of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, is in Saco, Maine, USA.

CPL offers teachings and empowerments with visiting Chagdud Gonpa and other Lamas, weekly and regular meditations of Red Tara, P’howa, and other Nyingma tradition Vajrayana meditations, and monthly Open Houses for potential residents and clients.

Contact: Marina Stretch, MHS
129 Smutty Lane, Saco, ME 04072 USA
Phone: (207) 286-1602
Email: cpl@ime.net

  • Cittamani Hospice Service (Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia)

A branch of Karuna Hospice Service: ‘Hospice at home’. Full palliative care service to people facing terminal illness in the Sunshine Coast area north of Brisbane, Queensland. This service is offered to people of all faiths or of no faith. Who do we care for? We care for adults and children who have a life expectancy of less than six months and who: normally reside on the Sunshine Coast; have a carer available; and have a general practitioner who is willing to be involved in home based care.

Inquiries regarding referrals can be made by telephoning our Cittamani Office on (07) 5445.0822

Contact: Alex Moore (Director)
Cittamani Hospice Service
230 Woombye – Palmwoods Road, Palmwoods, Queensland 4555
Postal Address: PO Box 324 Palmwoods, Qld 4555

Phone: (07) 5445.0822, Fax: (07) 5445.0688
Email: cittamanihospice@powerup.com.au

  • Hospice of Mother Tara (Bunbury, Western Australia)

This service assist the terminally ill with relaxation and meditation support when requested. There is a close connection with the Bunbury Cancer Support Group with visits once a month with meditation classes focussing on people with life threatening illness.

Buddhist Meditation and Healing Centre
Unit 3, 2B Victoria Street, Bunbury WA 6230

Contact: Ms Glenda Lee
Phone: (08) 9791 9798
Fax: (08) 9721 9497

Email: gleehmt@geo.net.au
Website: Hospice of Mother Tara

  • Karuna Hospice Service (Brisbane, Australia)

About Karuna Hospice Service
Using the Volunteer Respite Service
Karuna is located in Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia. It offers compassionate home-based care for individuals and their loved ones who are facing a life-threatening illness.

Karuna cares for adults and children who have a life expectancy of less than six months and who: normally reside in the Brisbane suburbs north of the Brisbane river; have a carer available and; have a general practitioner who is willing to be involved in home-based care. To maintain the quality of our care, we necessarily have to place a limit on the number of families we care for at any one time.

Email: karuna@karuna.org.au
Website: Karuna Hospice homepage

Inquiries regarding referral can be made to our
Nursing Co-ordinator by telephoning our office on (07) 3857 8555
The Karuna Hospice Service, PO Box 2020, Windsor, Queensland 4030

Karuna Hospice Service – Caboolture
PO Box 600 Caboolture, Queensland 4510
Phone: (07) 5499 3911

Caboolture Care Team
The office is located at 8 Lee Street, Caboolture
(50 minutes north of Brisbane) 24 hour holistic care at home.
Contact: Grace McGregor – Phone (07) 5499 3911

  • Insight Hospice & Healing Project (USA)

A Hospice and Healing Volunteer Outreach project based in a Theravada Buddhist Tradition serving people of all religions.

Life is process, and death is but one event during this enormous unfolding. It is not a matter of life or death, of healing or dying, but simply of life which includes death, healing which excludes nothing. It means living our death, healing our dying. – Stephen Levine

Contact:

Insight Hospice & Healing Project
335 27th Avenue, San Francisco CA. 94121
Tel: (415) 752-2436

Website: www.insighthospice.org

  • Pure Lotus Hospice of Compassion (Penang, Malaysia)

Pure Lotus Hospice of Compassion is a non profit charitable organisation providing in-patient hospice care for patients with advance cancer. It is the aspiration of a Buddhist nun who was a nurse tutor. It is her vision to have a hospice where the sick and suffering can find solace, the poor are not denied care and the dying find peace of mind. She found a response in a medical doctor and a group of supporters. A monk of like mind joined in to make the vision a reality.

The Hospice is opened to all regardless of race and religion.

PLHOC is staffed by a Medical Doctor who is a consultant in Palliative Medicine, volunteer doctors and qualified nurses. Medical and nursing care are available round the clock, with volunteer input.

Contact information:

Venerable Lyan Shih
Pure Lotus Hospice of Compassion
4, Jalan Wright 10350 Pulau, Penang, Malaysia
Phone/Fax: (604) 2295481

Email: purelotus@pd.jaring.my
Website: www.purelotus.org

  • Friends For Life (Thailand)

A hospice for poor or abandoned persons with AIDS in Thailand. In the Chiang Mai Northern Region 400,000 people are living with AIDS, beyond the capacity of the government to care for them. In addition to providing residential hospice services for 200 terminal AIDS patients per year, the Friends For Life Home seeks to develop an innovative, cost-effective model for AIDS care in underdeveloped areas. It trains 2,000 people per year in low-cost family caregiving modalities following Buddhist principles. The website has a good link collection of resources for AIDS and HIV in Asian countries.

Website: www.friendsforlife.org

  • Baan Peuan Cheewit (Thailand)

Baan Peuan Cheewit
183 Moo 4, behind Wat Mai Huay Sai,
Suthep sub-district, Muang, Chiang Mai

Telephone: 053-283-272 or 01-952-5944

The Thai Buddhist monk, Phra Phongthep Dhammagaruko, established a temple hospice for people with AIDS in the Northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Called Baan Peuan Cheewit [Friends of Life House], it assists people with AIDS who are abandoned by their families and trains families to care for people with HIV/AIDS.

  • Shakyamuni Community Health Care Centre (Bodhgaya, India)

This is a clinic in Bodhgaya, India which operates six days a week, employing local doctors, a nurse and a medical assistant who jointly administer to over five hundred patients each week. The main modality of treatment is homeopathic and nutritional therapy, but Ayurvedic and allopathic medicines are also used when required.

Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Care Centre originated in 1991, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one of his Gurus and a group of westerners found an old man lying in the road covered in flies and close to death, took him back to Root Institute and nurtured him until he died peacefully some six months later.

Gradually, the Health Care Centre started offering medical care to the many sick and needy people living in the rural areas surrounding Bodhgaya.

Website: website.lineone.net/~rootinstitute/social_work/health-care.html

  • Spiritual Care Program (Europe and North America)

The aim of the Spiritual Care Program is to demonstrate practical ways in which the compassion and wisdom of the Buddhist teachings can be of benefit to those facing illness or death and also to their families and medical caregivers. Based on the teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche and his classic bestseller, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, together with insights drawn from hospice experience, we offer an integrated approach for people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Our seminars, study groups and trainings emphasize universal spiritual principles which many people find resonate with those of their own tradition.
Spiritual Care Program
c/o Dzogchen Beara Spiritual Care Center
Garranes Allihies, West Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353 (0) 27 73 032

Email: info@spcare.org
Website: www.spcare.org

  • Heart Lotus Palliative Care Wards (Taiwan)

The Tzu Chi’s Medical network has several hospitals around Taiwan, two of them Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien and in Dalin have hospice care wards established. Two other hospitals in construction, Tanze and Hsintien, will also have the same “Heart Lotus Palliative Care Ward”. With two hospices already established, it may well be the first network of hospices in Taiwan.

The Tzu Chi hospitals are sponsored/funded by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation. There are hundreds of offices around the world including some 76 in America. With the missions of charity, medicine, education, and culture, Tzu Chi volunteers “care with compassion, give with joy”, practicing compassion and wisdom in their daily lives.

Heart Lotus Palliative Care Ward
Tzu Chi General Hospital in Dalin
2, Minsheng Road, Talin Town, Chiayi, Taiwan
Phone: 886-5-2648000

Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien
707, 3rd Section, Chungyang Road, Hualien City, Taiwan
Phone: 886-3-8561825, Fax: 886-3-8560977

Website: www.tzuchi.com.tw

  • Zen Hospice Project (San Francisco, USA)

Inspired by a 2500-year-old spiritual tradition, Zen Hospice Project encourages and supports a mutually beneficial relationship among volunteer caregivers and individuals facing death. This nationally-innovative model of conscious care provides a spectrum of collaborative volunteer programs, residential care, and trainings which aim at cultivating wisdom and compassion through service.

Its mission is to seed the culture with new approaches to end-of-life care. Through educational programs, intensive trainings, public dialogues, experiential workshops, and consulting services, the Institute works to reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying.

Contact:

Zen Hospice Project
273 Page Street, San Francisco, CA. 94102
Phone: 415.863.2910, Fax: 415.863.1768

Email: mail@zenhospice.org
Website: www.zenhospice.org

  • Welfare Services Team of the Amitabha Buddhist Center (Singapore)

The centre now has a small but steady group of hospice volunteers who regularly visit the Dover Park Hospice. The hospice, located beside the Tan Tock Seng Hospital house about 40 patients of whom about 80% are Buddhist/Taoist. At the current moment, our volunteer work centres around general duties, like changing bedsheets, changing diapers of those invalid and basically lending a listening ear to these patients. As we get familiarised with the hospice management, we will seek to provide spiritual help like prayer sessions, taking-and-giving meditation or loving-kindness meditation to those patients who are keen.

Kindly contact: Suriani at 2285786 if you are keen to join.

Website: sunflower.singnet.com.sg/~fpmtsing/w-team.html

  • The Buddhist Hospice Trust (United Kingdom)

The Buddhist Hospice Trust is an unaffiliated Buddhist organisation and a registered charity. The Trust exists to meet the needs of seriously ill, dying or bereaved Buddhists (and non-Buddhists in sympathy with its aims) for spiritual support and companionship. The Trust operates via a nationwide network of volunteers from all Buddhist schools and traditions, serving all who seek its support and help.

The Buddhist Hospice Trust acts as a bridge to hospices and providers of palliative care services for Buddhist organisations and individuals. It provides an a Buddhist advisory and consultative service on hospice and palliative care issues to the wider community, and on Buddhist perspectives on living and dying.

The Trust offers public meetings, occasional training events, and publications on hospice and related matters. The Trust is managed by a Board of trustees. The Chairman is Peter Goble. Kushog Pema Jigme Choder is an advisor.

Contact information:

Address: 31 Weir Gardens Rayleigh SS6 7TQ UK
Phone: 01268 775521
Email: pgoble@buddhisthospice.org.uk
Website: www.buddhisthospice.org.uk
Main Contact: Peter Goble (phone: 07951 869265)

  • Hospices Care Services in Singapore

Assisi Home and Hospice
820 Thomson Road, Singapore 574623
Tel: 359 7819; Fax: 253 5312

Dover Park Hospice
10 Jalan Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore 308436
Tel: 355 8200; Fax: 258 9007

Hospice Care Association
12 Jalan Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore 308437
Tel: 251 2561; Fax: 352 2030

St Joseph’s Home
921 Jurong Road, Singapore 649694
Tel: 268 0482; Fax: 268 4787

Other Hospice Resources:

  • Hospice Hands (USA)

Hospice Hands has an extensive collection of links to hospice-related sites and articles on the net, a hospice Q & A forum, discussion room that is open to all, hospice employment pages, and information on hospices around the world.

Website: Hospice Hand Link

  • The Connecticut Hospice (USA)

The Connecticut Hospice inaugurated hospice care in America in 1974. Since then, it has been the beacon and teacher of the growing hospice movement throughout the nation, and beyond. Connecticut Hospice addresses physical, spiritual, social, and emotional needs of patients with advanced irreversible illness, and their families. Such care is provided regardless of diagnosis and as long as the Hospice level of care is needed by the patients.

Website: www.hospice.com

  • Growth House (USA)

A comprehensive directory for end-of-life issues, including palliative care, hospice information, bereavement, and related topics.

Website: Resource Directory