Index of Posts
- Adolescents and GriefWhen adolescents suffer the death of someone they love, three variables have a major impact on how they react: how they already think of themselves, the presence of any depression, and their relative age.
- BereavementBereavement involves a particular kind of loss. It is the state of being deprived, usually by force, of someone or something we highly value.
- Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning ReviewToday my posting for In Due Course is a wrap-up of our topic for the past seven months – bereavement, grief, and mourning. I will cover what I consider important concepts about loss and its ramifications for each of us.
- Children and Grief: IssuesThis week I will continue the series by discussing children and grief. In the mid-1990’s William Worden and others conducted a two-year study – the Harvard Child Bereavement Study – on the effects of the death of a parent on children. Worden presented the findings from that study in the book Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies. Much of what I will be writing today is from that extensive study.
- Children and Grief: Needs Part 1The developmental stages of children also give rise to specific needs that adults should be aware of and be prepared to help address. Worden has recognized 10 of these. Because of space limitations, I will address 5 of those today and the remaining 5 next week.
- Children and Grief: Needs Part 2Today, I will continue this topic by writing about the other five needs. Just like last week, this information is adapted from William Worden’s book Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies, a book describing the results of the two-year Harvard Child Bereavement Study.
- Children and Grief: Warning SignsToday I will continue discussing children and grief by concentrating on warning signs that may indicate that a bereaved child needs professional help with his/her mourning.
- Comparing Levels of GriefThe problem with grief comparisons is that I do not know how someone can accurately measure grief – there are no grief rulers or grief scales – and make that judgment call. Mankind has not been able to figure out how one person can crawl into another person's skin and know what he/she is experiencing. Until we are able to discover how to do that, we can guess, but cannot not really know, what is going on inside of him/her and how he/she is feeling.
- Dying: Five Stages of Life-threatening IllnessThe four tasks (physical, social, psychological, and spiritual) of coping with dying can differ for each of the five phases (prediagnostic, acute, chronic, terminal, and recovery) of living with a life-threatening illness.
- Dying: Physical Dimensions of CareProbably the most demanding physical need of a dying person is the control of pain. This post discusses acute pain, chronic pain, and the management of pain.
- Dying: Physical TasksThe first task in coping with dying is to address the physical needs of excretion, eating, drinking, breathing, and any physical distress such as intense pain, severe nausea, and repeated vomiting.
- Dying: Psychological Dimensions of CareFor many caregivers, the psychological dimensions of care can be more difficult to deal with than the physical dimensions. In the physical dimensions, there is something that the caregiver can try to do to relieve physical suffering: medications, physical contact, etc. However, when the suffering is psychological, i.e., involving feelings such as sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, and other so-called negative feelings, what can a caregiver do to help?
- Dying: Psychological TasksThe psychological tasks involved in coping with dying include providing psychological security, some degree of autonomy, and psychological richness.
- Dying: Social Dimensions of CareThe social dimension of care for the dying is based on helping the dying person with the tasks involving two areas of social contact: 1) the special relationships the dying person has with other cherished individuals and 2) the dying person's roles and responsibilities in various communities, such as the family, the workplace, the organizations, etc. he or she is a part of.
- Dying: Social TasksTwo aspects of social living that form the social tasks that are important to a dying person. The first aspect involves the interpersonal attachments and interactions of the dying person while the second involves interactions with certain social groups within society or with society as a whole.
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