Research Framework
Part of Life’s End Institute’s mission is to research the experience of dying, and the determinants of quality at life’s end. When the Institute began as the Missoula Demonstration Project in 1996, little data existed about how people experience the end of life. The Institute set out to change this.
Through twelve major research projects, the Institute created a Community Profile, a comprehensive mosaic of data, defining people’s attitudes, expectations and experiences related to dying and death in Missoula County. The Community Profile serves as a baseline measure of dying and loss in Missoula County and as the foundation upon which our community engagement programs are built.
The research tools we developed for assessment in Missoula have been used by communities and states nationwide.