ISN'T IT TIME WE TALK ABOUT IT?
In Our Communities
With Our Families and Loved Ones

A Four-part PBS Series with Bill Moyers
Airing Sundays at 4 p.m.
February 4, 11, 18 and 25, 2001
KAET-TV/Channel 8

Based on two years of research and production, this four-part series takes Bill Moyers to the front lines of the movement to improve end-of-life care. Moyers documents remarkable personal stories of the dying as they struggle to live their final days and to come to terms with their life and death. Television provides a unique opportunity to bring a national focus to an issue that affects us all. Across the country, people are becoming aware of the quality of end-of-life care in their communities and are working to improve it. People are thinking about death in a new way, not as a failure of medicine, but as a natural part of life. ON OUR OWN TERMS introduces viewers to leaders in palliative care who use a variety of techniques to deal with pain and other symptoms as well as the psychological and spiritual issues that are critical to a dying person and his or her family. The series will also explore the swirling controversies in law, public policy, and medicine that are arising in response to efforts to changes the experience of dying.

BEGINNING A NATIONAL CONVERSATION
Each year, half the US population is touched by the death of a relative or close friend. Isn't it time we talk about it? Communities and individuals are working to improve the care of the dying and to address their fears and concerns including:
· Fear of dying in pain
· Concern about being a burden on family and loved ones
· Acute financial stress
· Fear of dying alone
· Loss of control and dignity
People are asking themselves if there is a better way to die: a way that allows people to approach the difficult circumstances and complex choices on their own terms. If we are going to improve the way we die, we have to begin talking about it and then take action. That is the goal for the national outreach campaign for ON OUR OWN TERMS. Together, we can promote discussion-at the dinner table, in school, in houses of worship, in libaries and town halls, at hospitals and doctors' offices, and at work-on the many ethical, financial, spiritual, and medical issues surrounding end-of-life care. Around the country, ON OUR OWN TERMS STEERING committees are forming. These committees, representing broad-based coalitions, are involved in a variety of activities, designed to unite their communities in support of improving end-of-life care, using the PBS series as a catalyst.

OPPORTUNITIES AND RESOURCES
Please take the time to become involved in the ON OUR OWN TERMS outreach campaign. Watch the series-talk to your family, loved ones and friends. Take part in ongoing activities-local communities throughout the nation are taking action by organizing town hall meetings, discussion groups, and speaker forums, publishing local resource directories, supporting professional and consumer education, and staffing volunteer hotlines during the series broadcast.

WEB SITE
The ON OUR OWN TERMS Web Site at www.pbs.org/onourownterms includes a bulletin board, downloadable materials, a list of national organizations participating in the program, and other campaign information. Check back in late August for a wide range of new features.

DISCUSSION GUIDE
The ON OUR OWN TERMS Discussion Guide offers thought-provoking essays about the issues raised in each program, suggests discussion topics, and includes a list of books and other resource materials, the guide is available free of charge while supplies last by writing to:
ON OUR OWN TERMS Discussion Guide
Thirteen/WNET New York
PO Box 245
Little Falls, NJ 07424-0245
It is also available in downloadable format at: www.pbs.org/onourownterms/out/community.html

VIDEOS OF THE SERIES
Available after September 13, 2000. Special pricing available to project partners (use code DJE):
Films for the Humanities and Sciences
PO Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543
Contact: Diane Bilello Tel: 609.419.8039 or 800.257.5126
Fax: 609.275.3767

Funding for this landmark PBS series and the companion outreach effort is provided by: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The Fetzer Institute The Nathan Cummings Foundation The Kohlberg Foundation, Inc. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund Mutual of American Life Insurance Company.