Loss, grief and bereavement is something we all come across within our lifetimes, whether it is in a professional or personal capacity. This discussion will focus on sudden death and the devastating effects it can have on the significant others of the deceased. Theoretical concepts about loss, grief and bereavement will be explored, and the impact that paramedics can have using evidenced based holistic care.
“Loss, grief and bereavement are about more than just death and dying” (Nicol, 2017, p.44). All three processes are interlinked together, potentially evoking a highly emotive response whether the death was expected or sudden (Alexander and Klein, 2012). Grief can manifest itself in a number of different ways including physical, psychological and emotional responses to name a few. Costello (2012) and supported by Malkinson (1996) suggests that there is an expectation that there will be various stages of grief such as the five stages of grief model (Kübler-Ross and Kessler, 2005), but the extent to which an individual experiences grief can also affect the individuals’ experience of being
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Parkes also studied how the effect of a traumatic bereavement can influence the persons overall response. An unexpected loss can exhibit a problematic bereavement in some due to the unpreparedness a sudden death can bring. Parkes (2008) found that there were higher levels of distress when a traumatic bereavement had occurred, and were more likely to obtain psychiatric help. Davies (2010) comments on his own experience of bereavement stating it is personal knowledge, compassion, and own experience that creates our judgement that directs end of life care, whether it be for a sudden or expected death. Davies further states that “we have a professional obligation to extend a thoughtful condolence to surviving family members (2010,
Not only do these symptoms cause anguish in an individual suffering from complicated grief, but they can also lead
Generally speaking, humans cannot be entirely prepared for dying or the death of a close person in their life. Some people say that facing death gives a person both opportunity to grow mentally and the strength to carry on in life; however, it can be too much to handle alone. Help can be needed not only from relatives and peers, but also from the experts. Strong grieving is more than usual, but life must eventually carry on. Death can be both interesting and frightening at the same time because nobody knows what happens afterwards.
Parents find the need to constantly try and protect their children from anything that could possibly harm them, whether it be emotionally or physically. With that comes along the need to protect their children from death because of the belief that it will be too much for them to handle. In “On Death and Dying” an excerpt from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s book, Kubler-Ross gives information, from a psychiatrist point of view, about how people deal with death today and some of the similarities and differences from how people dealt with death in the past. Kubler-Ross explains how hiding death from children could in the long run be more damaging than if they were just told the truth from the beginning. She says by not telling them that someone has
There are multiple stages of grief and healing. The stages have no order, so one person may not be at the same stage as another when dealing with the same situation. The same thing applies to the stages of healing. In the novel “Ordinary People” by Judith Guest, the Jarrett family, Conrad, Calvin, and Beth are all in different stages of grief due to the loss of Buck and other reasons varying from character to character. The two main characters Conrad and Calvin move from stages of grief to stages of healing by recognizing why their grieving.
The major question many people have is, why can one person get over a death very fast but other have it follow them their whole life. The authors explain “the idea that health outcomes following a traumatic experience may
1 Outline the factors that can affect an individual’s views on death and dying •Social •Cultural •Religious •Spiritual 2 Outline the factors that can affect own views on death and dying •Emotional •Past experience •Psychological •Religious •Social •Spiritual 3 Outline how the factors relating to views on death and dying can impact on practice Current and previous professional roles and responsibilities and past; boundaries limited by legal and ethical issues; professional codes of practice - internal and national; impact of management and leadership; input from other team members and workers. 4 Define how attitudes of others may influence an individual’s choices around death and dying different models of nursing care; person-centred
There are unlimited ways to express healthy emotion. As everyone experiences this, loss is understood as a natural part of life. However, we can still be overcome by shock and confusion, leading to prolonged periods of sadness or depression. The sadness typically diminishes in intensity as time passes, but grieving is an important process in order to overcome these feelings and continue to embrace the time you had with your loved one.” (Nordal PhD, Katherine APA).
In the wake of loss, the last thing anybody should be feeling is judged by the ways they handle said loss. Yes, the stages of grief do present a general outline of how it’s handled, but it also marginalizes how a person is expected to react, when in reality, nobody can predict their response when they suddenly find the hands of grief gripped tightly around their throats. In the short story “From Ashes”, author Zachary Foster concludes his life-writing
Grieving is a common and unhappy process that many people go through in their lifetime. Through the grieving process, people often come to conclusions about their life. In Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Vera loses her best friend Charlie and tries to stray away from her parent’s examples, only to find out that she will have to come to terms with the loss of her best friend. In We Were Liars, Cadence gets sick in a tragic accident that causes her to wonder about her family and find out the truth. In both, Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King, and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, we learn that when people grieve it causes more loss and unlawful actions.
In that situation, family members who are present at the time of attempted resuscitation are at high risk for emotional and physical burdens.1On the other hand, being family present during resuscitation may help the family members understand that everything possible to bring the patient back to life has been implemented.1 In addition to quelling suspicion about behind-closed-doors resuscitation efforts and unrealistic expectations of such efforts, the family member's presence may offer the opportunity for a last goodbye and help that person grasp the reality of death, with the hope that the bereavement process will not be prolonged or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although, the benefits and drawbacks of family presence during resuscitation have been argued since 1987,1 the potential benefits must be weighed against the possibility of stress induced in health care providers and an increase in the emotional burden on family members, as well as the risk of legal claims
Some people believe they do not want a better understanding of what caused their loved one’s passing; however, with better understanding comes accepting it as something irreversible. At this particular point in the grieving process people can do things such as making lists of why the situation was not their fault, write a mock letter to their deceased loved one, or seek professional help. Typically, people are afraid to seek help from professionals like psychologists but, the information and the fact someone is seeking help is private. As reported by Mary Lou Cappel and Susan Leifer Mathieu of Loss and the Grieving Process, seeking professional help is just another step in accepting emotions and grief that come along with death. Not everyone can handle accepting their pain and gaining understanding; therefore, this step can be the hardest yet most
Coping with the loss of someone or something you love is one of life’s biggest challenges. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience all kinds of difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness. The pain of grief can also disrupt your physical health, making it difficult to sleep, eat, or even think straight. These are normal reactions to significant loss.
If you haven’t already, you will go through trials in life. Through those trials, the feelings of affliction that you experience are grief. Grief encompasses many types of losses – death, abilities, friends, relationships jobs, financial stability, etc. Each one of these examples can cause us to feel distressed. Later, I’ll be sharing my story of grief and loss.
LOSS, GRIEF AND HEALING As human beings, we suffer losses of many kinds and sizes in our life time. While some of these losses are small and do not hurt much, some are big and hurt deeply. Those that are accompanied by pains that are difficult to bear include the loss of a loved one through death or divorce, cheating or unfaithfulness in a trusted relationship or loss of good health when a diagnosis of a terminal illness is made. In all these instances of loss, pain and grief are experienced and an emotional wound is created which needs healing.
Sometime in your life, you will experience grief, grief causes many people to completely shut down and close off from the outside world, their friends may try to help them but sometimes it's just useless. I have experienced grief sometime in my life as something close to me has disappeared. During all of these situations, I shut down completely, I wouldn’t go to dinner and during school recesses, i would just think about what I could have done instead of doing this or that. I didn’t ever look for help as I wanted to keep this situation to myself, but whenever I got the question, What’s wrong? , I was tempted to say something, but I still kept shut.