Module 22: Critical Issues Concerning Death and Bereavement Flashcards
Clinical Death
few minutes after the heart stopped pumping
Brain Death
a person no longer has reflexes or any response to vigorous external stimuli and no electrical activity in the brain
Social Death
when other people treat a deceased person like a corpse
Hospice Care
personal, patient- and family-centered, compassionate care for the terminally ill
Palliative Care
includes relief of pain and suffering, controlling of symptoms, alleviation of stress, and attempts to maintain a satisfactory quality of life
Terminal Drop or Terminal Decline
specifically to a widely observed decline in cognitive abilities shortly before death
Near-Death Experience
often involving a sense of being out of the body or sucked into a tunnel and visions of bright lights or mystical encounters
What is near-death experience linked to?
Linked to stimulation or damage of various brain areas, most notably in bilateral frontal and occipital areas
Why is near-death experience generally experienced as positive?
Generally experienced as positive as a result of the release of endorphins
Grief
emotional response that generally follows closely on the heels of death
Bereavement
response to the loss of some whom a person feels close
Grief Work
working out of psychological issues connected with grief
Grief Work Path
- Shock and Disbelief
- Preoccupation with the memory of the dead person
- Resolution
Recovery Pattern
mourner goes high to low distress
Delayed Grief
moderate or elevated initial grief, and symptoms worsen over time
Chronic Grief
distressed for a long time
Dual-Process Model (Stroebe & Schut, 1999)
- Confrontation
- Restoration
Confrontation
confront their loss and actively grieve
Restoration
focus on moving forward
Multiple Variations (Bonano et al., 2011)
- Recovery
- Delayed
- Chronic
- Resilience
Recovery
high to low distress
Delayed
worsen over time
Chronic
remains distress for a long time
Resilience
+ low and gradually diminishing
+ the mourner shows a low and gradually diminishing level of grief in response to the death of a loved one
At what age do children understand death?
+ By age 4, children build a partial understanding of the biological nature of death
+ By the time the school starts (beginning of concrete operations), most children seem to understand both permanence and the universality of death