The aim of this program is to further develop, evaluate, and disseminate new service delivery programs involving therapies and techniques for further expression of pain and loss for bereaved school-age children in low-income, inner-city public schools who have experienced the death of a parent/parents due to violence, substance abuse, and, increasingly, HIV infection and AIDS.

The Center to Improve Care of the Dying is an interdisciplinary organization engaging in research, advocacy, and education to improve the care of dying patients and those suffering with severely disabling diseases. Center staff encourage the development and realignment of health care funding to engender effective care. The center continues to address spiritual issues and the development of measures of quality of end-of-life services in health care. It was founded on the belief that life under the shadow of death can be rewarding, comfortable, and meaningful for almost all persons—but achieving that goal requires real change in the care system.

For the American Geriatric Society, CICD prepared an amicus brief for U.S. Supreme Court hearings on physician assisted suicide. The brief opposed constitutional recognition of a right to such assistance. The center has also described dying and decisionmaking in seriously ill adults, developed measurement tools for assessing quality of care and to foster development of accountability in care services, and carried out a project to evaluate the treatment of the dying process in medical textbooks.

CICD staff are developing a proposal called MediCaring. This project