Relief, comfort and control. These are the gifts provided by hospice workers across the nation to over 500,000 terminally ill patients each year.

The Journey Home: Stories from Hospice examines this service through the intimate, candid stories of five Utah hospice patients and their families as they embark on their final journey, with the compassionate help of local hospice workers. Their stories are unique - yet universal.

At a time when medical technology is extending our lives - and making our deaths more lonely, frightening and sterile - hospice steps in to offer a more meaningful way to die, surrounded by loved ones in a familiar environment. Primarily based in the privacy of the patient's home, hospice offers comfort-oriented care when there is no hope for a cure. The Journey Home examines this medical model, presenting five patients who have taken control over where and how they will die.

"I feel in many ways like a ghost," hospice patient Cary Jones tells viewers during the film. "I'm walking around with the knowledge that most people have the luxury of living without…the knowledge that I could be dead in three days from now." Through striking personal interviews and in-depth footage of the team approach to physical, emotional and spiritual care, The Journey Home weaves the stories of doctors, nurses, social workers and family members to present a sensitive landscape of living with dying, and dying with dignity.

Hard to define in words, the delicate role of hospice becomes clear through the experiences of five families on the same, final journey. Cary Jones, an eloquent mother, wife and artist, gives voice to the spiritual and emotional journey she's made as she faces the end of her life with grace and beauty. Joe Torman, an elderly outdoors enthusiast, still maintains his independence despite his liver disease diagnosis. Steve Warren, a hospice doctor, experiences hospice on a personal level as he watches his mother deteriorate in the final stages of multiple sclerosis. Jeanette Rydalch, a caregiver on the brink of burnout, struggles with the emotional difficulties - and financial strains - brought on by her husband's untreatable brain tumor. Karen Cook, an ovarian cancer patient with two young children and a husband, must come to terms with how her illness has affected her family, and how they will stay together in the face of her uncertain future.

Local services featured in the one-hour program include Utah's Heritage Hospice and IHC Hospice Care, programs dedicated to helping the terminally ill pass their remaining days with sympathy and comfort. As part of KUED's commitment to exploring end-of-life issues at a local level, The Journey Home paints a touching picture of the decency, caring and courage Utah hospice workers embody each day as they help patients and families come to terms with their own mortality. "I feel extraordinarily privileged to experience the radiant beauty of most dying people," says Nancy Telos, the tender chaplain who helps patients and their families sort through the philosophical conflicts of death and dying. "Most of them cut to the chase. They know what matters, and that's what they want to focus on. It's an honor to me to help them do that."

"In shooting The Journey Home, I was curious about how hospice workers were able to support people at a time when hope for a cure is gone, and death is the only thing that is certain," says KUED Producer Nancy Green. There is nothing more profound, she maintains, than being with somebody as they make the transition between life and death. Green courageously portrays that transition in The Journey Home.

The Journey Home: Stories From Hospice is distributed nationally by American Public Television (APT). Located in Boston, APT is a major source of programming for the nation's public television stations. Known for identifying innovative programs and developing creative distribution techniques, APT provides stations with program choices that enable them to strengthen and customize their schedules. It also serves as an essential distribution option for producers. More information about APT's programs and services is available at www.aptvs.org.

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