[The hospice movement in Croatia--short review]

The hospice movement was launched by the Croatian Society of Hospice and Palliative Care, Croatian Medical Association, founded and headed by the author until 2009. In this article, the author describes the development of the hospice movement in four periods, as follows: first period 1994-1999, the beginnings; second period 2000-2005, a period of great hopes and initial achievement of first goals; third period 2006-2008, a period of stagnation, the 'burn-out' syndrome, looking for new ways and people; and fourth period 2009-? Let us hope it will bring true finding way out, a new period of struggling for acceptable solutions, which has already been accomplished in many countries. The hope dies last, the hope in positive powers among the citizens of Croatia. Only the most important facts are presented, whereas citations from numerous lectures, events held all over Croatia and publications in many books and newspapers are omitted. Descriptions of numerous trips for training, education, for one month, two weeks, one week or several days in the USA, Canada, UK, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, etc., and of visits paid by many guests from the UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, etc. are also omitted. All these facts will be presented in the monograph that has been prepared for publication.