About
The questions come before the answers do.
Dying Truth helps when you don’t know who to call, what to ask, or where to look next. It’s free. No ads. No login.
How Dying Truth Began
Elise Luce, MBA, LMSW, ACHP-SW
Hospice and palliative care social worker
After Hurricane Katrina, my grandmother lost her home and moved to a skilled nursing facility near me. I became her health care agent and advocate, asking questions, making decisions with her, and helping navigate her care until she died on hospice.
I learned how quickly aging, illness, caregiving, money, family, and loss can collide. I also learned how much families are expected to figure out while they’re already overwhelmed.
Before that, I earned an MBA and worked in business management. Caring for my grandmother is why I went back to school to become a social worker. Since then, I’ve worked with victims of domestic violence, responded to mental health crises, and supported patients and families facing serious illness and death.
During COVID, I was a hospice team leader. Families were making the same kinds of decisions with less time, less access, and fewer people available to help.
I built Dying Truth because clear guidance shouldn’t depend on who you know, what you can afford, or whether someone explains it in time.
Who This Is For
For the person who has to figure out what happens next.
You may be filling out forms before a crisis comes.
You may be hearing that you have six months or less to live.
You may be trying to keep someone safe at home.
You may be sitting beside someone whose breathing has changed.
You may be walking into somebody else’s dying.
You may be standing in a quiet house after the funeral home has left.
How Dying Truth Works
The information here comes from government agencies, health systems, nonprofits, professional organizations, and other reliable public sources. I organize it around the situations people actually face. My social work training and hospice experience shape what I include, what I put first, and what I tell you to ask.
Easy to use when you’re tired or overwhelmed. The pages are built to skim, so you can still find what to do next.
Built for anywhere in the U.S. Rules, programs, and forms vary by state, so I point you to the people who can confirm what applies where you live.
You decide what’s right for you. I’ll tell you what to ask and what to watch for, not what to choose.
Laws, programs, services, and phone numbers change. If you find something out of date or wrong, please tell me.
The Book
I also wrote Dying Truth: What Happens and What Helps. It follows seven composite families, each living with someone who is dying. The social worker is the same in every story. The situations and the endings are not.