This is an article mostly about the support one gets when having a terminal illness, but I think it might be relevant here too.

“I don’t know if there will ever be a health care system that affords the time to talk through this kind of despair,” Dr. Meier said during the hectic aftermath of her $500,000 award. “And it’s naïve optimism to think we can set public policy that will protect vulnerable patients” from end-of-life decisions made by doctors who spend “ten minutes per patient.”

...

“Everything important in health care has to do with the relationship, and that requires space and time,” Dr. Meier said. “We ask them what’s on their minds, what distresses them the most, what their hopes are, and then we work to move the barriers out of the way.”

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2...ing-is-sacred/