Supporting Individuals Experiencing Loss and Grief.
Grief is a natural response to a major loss, though often deeply painful and can have a negative impact on your life. Any loss can cause varied levels of grief often when someone least expects it however, loss is widely varied and is often only perceived as death. Tugendhat (2005) argued that losses such as infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, adoption and divorce can cause grief in everyday life. Throughout our lives we all face loss in one way or another, whether it is being diagnosed with a terminal illness, loss of independence due to a serious accident or illness, gaining a criminal record (identity loss), losing our job, home or ending a relationship; we all experience loss
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Reconstruction & Working Through: As a person starts to become more functional, realistic solutions seem possible for life after the loss.
Acceptance & Hope: The last stage – a person learns to accept and deal with the reality of their situation. A person is more future-oriented and learns to cope.
(Wright, J. 2011)
During the time I have been employed within social care I have worked in conjunction with various organisations who offer support to individuals experiencing grief and loss. Victim Support Scotland is an organisation I have recently referred one of my cases to who has suffered a loss. My service users father was subsequently murdered following a drug related crime, the incident was reported on nationally and images were published on the internet and papers. My service user (who I will name as Ben for the purposes of confidentiality) is a 14 year old male, he maintained a close relationship with his father albeit did not live in the same house as him due to his parents divorcing. Following the death, Ben appeared to pursue his life as normal and at no point showed any emotion for his loss. However, 5 weeks later his mother informed me that Ben began to spend much of his time researching his father's name using Google and started to keep his father's belongings in his bedroom. He started to become increasingly emotional stating he didn't understand how his father died and on several occasions left school to return home.
Loss is something we all share and experience in life. There are different types of loss which affect our everyday lives, emotions and relationships. If our attachment is strong then we will feel stronger emotions. The complexity of our attachment will also dictate how we move through our grief.
Life involves many losses. There are small losses: losing a football game, failing a test, or forgetting an assignment. At some point, though, all of us will experience a major loss: the death of a close family member, a major illness, or a divorce in the family. Loss is inevitable for all of us. If you have ever experienced grief and loss, or if you are currently experiencing it, then you might be trying to recover the wrong way. You might believe that you have gotten over it, but it could come back even years later. When it comes to grief and loss, there are a lot of components that people do not understand, but today there are many methods to coop that will lead you down the path of healing.
A loss is something most people find difficult to deal with. A term commonly used to refer to loss is been bereavement, which is the position of having lately departed with someone important in one’s life through death. It is normal in the human world to experience such a loss and people ought to know how to manage such experiences when they do happen. Bereavement is never easy; it is a period that individuals experience too much suffering that leaves them feeling vulnerable. Some people are also at risk of developing physical health and mental problems. It can take months or
The fact that some of these losses are considered a disenfranchised type of grief, is understandable yet at the same time a bit harsh. Some of these losses are uncontrollable and unexpected. Their classification
Grief is a normal part of coping with a loss but for some people, it can be far more serious. In
Loss is defined as the experience of having something taken from you or destroyed (Loss, 2016). In the senior population losses become more common and frequent due to dwindling health circumstances, among other circumstances. “Functional losses experienced by the elderly include physical performance, balance, mobility, and muscle strength” (Nakano, Otonari, Takara, Carmo & Tanaka, 2014, p. 583). Situational or circumstantial losses may be the loss of a partner or the loss of a home due to being transferred into a retirement home or health care facility. Losses are enhanced by any diseases a person may have making it more difficult to deal with these losses. “Taking a look at diabetes; diabetes plays a key role in many individuals in the older adult population lives, more than 25% of adults over the age of 65 in America have been diagnosed with diabetes” (Kirkman, 2012, p. 2650). This disease alters the rate of which losses are experienced and in turn how the elderly grief over the loss. “Diabetic patients are more likely to experience depression and diabetic patients are more likely to undergo amputation from limb loss” (Spiess, McLemore, Zinyemba, Ortiz & Meyr, 2014, p. 1068). Being diagnosed with diabetes impacts every aspect of one’s life and creates difficulties in caring for oneself that need to be dutifully addressed.
Julie Axelrod’s article reinstates the five stages of grief that were first proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying (1969), explaining the five phases individuals are said to go through when faced with difficult situations such as the loss of a relative, close friendship, valued possession, etc. The five stages of grief are: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4.
Patients who are experiencing a life challenge or have experienced loss of any sort may it be loss of body image, body function, mental function, health, and loss of independence goes through a grieving process. Depending on the circumstances of the loss, grieving can takes weeks to years to overcome. They must first become aware of their loss. They must grasp the fact that their reality has changed, then they may become numb or tearful or even angry. Some may internalize it while other may express behavior uncharacteristic of themselves and their previous personalities. Having sympathy for their loss and encouraging them to start reconstructing their life can be
When a child dies, the Local Safeguarding Children Board must look into this matter. They must assess the cause of death. The board will also contemplate whether they should carry out a serious case review. This would be done for a number of reasons, if a child sustains a potentially serious injury or permanent damage due to abuse or neglect, or if the child has been seriously harmed through sexual abuse or a violent attack by another child or adult or in any case that raise concerns about the way in which local professionals and services cooperate in safeguarding
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grief as, “a deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement.” Grief and loss is something that everyone experiences throughout their life time. Some people may not experience a major loss until later in life, but others may experience loss at a young age. Handling and coping with grief varies from each individual. Grief from loss is having something taken away from you that can be sudden or instant.
Grief is the act following the loss of a loved one. While grief and bereavement are normal occurrences, the grief process is a social construct of how someone should behave. The acceptable ways that people grieve change because of this construct. For a time it was not acceptable to grieve; today, however, it is seen as a necessary way to move on from death (Scheid, 2011).The grief process has been described as a multistage event, with each stage lasting for a suggested amount of time to be considered “normal” and reach resolution. The beginning stage of grief is the immediate shock, disbelief, and denial lasting from hours to weeks (Wambach, 1985). The middle stage is the acute mourning phase that can include somatic and emotional turmoil. This stage includes acknowledging the event and processing it on various levels, both mentally and physically. The final stage is a period of
Loss affects people in various ways, but especially when it is the loss of someone they are in close relations to, whether it is a loved one, relative or good friend. Going through the physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual impacts that come with the events of a death can really influence the life of the person dealing with the loss. Understanding how people grieve after experience a traumatic event such as death and dying was the main influence for Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ study which developed into the model we are familiar with now: Kübler-Ross 5 Stages of Grief (Sotelo, Livingood, Sanden, & Webb, 2015). Death, dying and grief are things that every person will face one way or another, and how people react and live on
In the early twenty-first century, shortly after Kübler Ross’s death, Senior editor of TIME Magazine, Ruth Davis Konigsberg, presented an article and new idea to David Kessler and the public that believed in the Five Stages of Grief. The article that Konigsberg published completely transformed society’s theory of how people grieve. Konigsberg wrote her theory by debunking the “stages” of Kübler Ross’s theory that she claimed to be myths. Firstly, she believed that people do not grieve in stages, but rather they accept the death of a loved one from the very beginning, yet still experience a yearning for their lost loved one, more so than either anger or depression. Next, based on several studies, Konigsberg claimed that expressing your emotion towards the loss only hinders your recovery and that people were better off if they repressed any distress.
Death loss for a midlife adult stands somewhat disqualified to not be considered a major disruptive loss. It is assumed that a loss at this stage in life as not distressing for the reason by now the adult has experience with loss. Notwithstanding, this is false whether young or old losing a parent, aunt, uncle, or any other significant person in one’s life it is valid loss. Associated with decrease physical well-being and psychological well-being the midlife adult is subject to the transitions in their life from the loss. The midlife adult will reassess life priorities in the process of grieving. What is key to remember is, no matter the age of a person grievance
Loss can be experienced in many forms, the loss of a job, of a loved one, loss of health, of finances,