Topic 14: death + dying

Question 1

5 Stages of dying

Answer 1

1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

Question 2

Describe denial

Answer 2

• Shock to learn they’re dying
• Then cannot conceive own death
• Denial + isolation = common responses

Question 3

Describe anger

Answer 3

• Denial is substituted by rage/envy/resentment
• ‘Why me?’
• Healthcare professionals = target of anger

Question 4

Describe bargaining

Answer 4

• Not experienced by all dying people
• Dying people negotiate
• Postponed = reward of good behavior

Question 5

Describe depression

Answer 5

• Develop sense of great loss = depression
• Identity crisis e.g. woman + uterus cancer = no longer a woman
• Depressed due to loss of family

Question 6

Describe acceptance

Answer 6

• Find peace
• Pain over = struggle over
• Family needs more support than patient this stage

Question 7

Describe home deaths

Answer 7

• Traditional place to die
• Lots of people feel more comfortable
• Great pressure on informal carers = emotional strain + life restricted

Question 8

Describe hospital death

Answer 8

• Majority of deaths
• Medicalized death
• Death becomes pathologies = try save patient even when dying

Question 9

Describe hospice death

Answer 9

• Holistic care + interdisciplinary teams

Question 10

Describe bereavement

Answer 10

• Sudden death is more difficult
• Terminal illness = more mourning time

Question 11

Stages of mourning

Answer 11

• Short period of shock
• A period of intense mourning
• Re-established socially + physiologically

Question 12

What is the role of funerals?

Answer 12

• Contexts of expressing intense feelings
• Offer the living a framework to understand death
• Complete a cycle = nothing pending
• Linked to place of burial = place of reference with dead

Question 13

Define biological + social death

Answer 13

• Biological = end of life
• Social = person no longer capable of mastering own life = rely on others to act on their behalf = brain injured + coma + brain death

Question 14

Describe the changes in perception of death

Answer 14

• Michael bury 1997 = death feared
• Death privatized
• Death exposure declined = death not observed in public = people afraid of death
• Scientific understanding of death in modern societies
• Decline in importance of sacred death experience

Question 15

Describe medicalization

Answer 15

• Leads to cultural iatrogenesis
• Biomedicine undermines peoples ability to manage own health + ability to cope with pain + suffering + death
• Dying is presented as a disease = curable = over-treatment + heroic medicine

Question 16

Glaser + Strauss 4 forms of awareness contexts

Answer 16

1) Closed = staff knows but patient doesn’t
2) Suspicion awareness = staff acts in ways where they don’t address it but patient recognizes
3) Mutual pretense = both pretend nothing is wrong
4) Open awareness = patient informed = emotional commitment by staff = associated with good death

Question 17

Kellehear’s idea of good death

Answer 17

• Open awareness
• Dying person closes pending issues
  5 FEATURES:
  1) Awareness of dying = patient + family + staff know
  2) Personal preparations + social adjustments = Settle emotional accounts + family disputes
  3) Public preparations = settle practical accounts = wills
  4) Relinquishing formal work roles = withdrawal from jobs
  5) Formal/informal farewells