Week 11 Death and Dying a

Question 1

dying may have support from

Answer 1

➢ Carers and informal carers

➢ Family members and friends

➢ Social workers and psychologists

➢ Home help

Question 2

Stages of dying people

Answer 2

➢ First stage: denial
➢ Second stage: anger
➢ Third age: bargaining
➢ Fourth stage: depression
➢ Fifth stage: acceptance

Question 3

First stage: denial

Answer 3

➢ When people learn they are dying they experience shock

➢ When they go over the shock they tend to say “No, it can’t be me” – people cannot conceive their own death

➢ Denial and isolation are common responses

Question 4

Second stage: anger

Answer 4

➢ Over time denial is substituted by feelings of anger, rage, envy and resentment

➢ The question “Why me?” is quite common at this stage

➢ Anger may be random. However, healthcare professionals may be the target of such anger

Question 5

Third stage: bargaining

Answer 5

➢ This is not experienced by all dying people

➢ When it happens dying people negotiate – openly with health professionals and secretly with god to postpone death

➢ Postponement can be the reward for a promise of good behaviour

Question 6

Fourth stage: depression

Answer 6

➢ Over time dying people develop a sense of great loss which leads to depression

➢ Depression and identity: e.g. a woman with cancer of the uterus may feel she is no longer a woman

➢ Dying people may be depressed due to other loses as a result of death: i.e. family

Question 7

Fifth stage: acceptance

Answer 7

➢ This is the final stage when dying people find peace

➢ Peace is associated with a diminished interest in the world

➢ Dying people feel that the pain is gone, the struggle is over

➢ This is the time when the family needs more support than the patient

Question 8

Places of Death

Answer 8

➢ Home

➢ Hospital

➢ Hospice

Question 9

(Places of Death)

Home

Answer 9

➢ Many deaths happen at home

➢ Home was traditionally the place to die

➢ Some people feel more comfortable to die at home

➢ Dying at home is a great pressure on informal carers

➢ Informal carers experience emotional strain and have their life restricted

Question 10

(Places of Death)

Hospital

Answer 10

➢ Majority of deaths happen at hospitals

➢ Death has been medicalised

➢ Medical doctors have turned death into a series of
pathologies and try to save patients even when patients
are dying

Question 11

(Places of Death)

Hospice

Answer 11

➢ Deaths may happen at hospices

➢ Hospices provide holistic, non-hierarchical care, and uses interdisciplinary teams

Question 12

Stages of mourning

Answer 12

• A short period of shock: from death to funeral
• A period of intense mourning: withdrawal from social activities and physiological changes

• A period of being re-established socially and
physiologically

Question 13

The role of funerals

Answer 13

• Funerals are contexts of expressing intense feelings
• They offer to the living a framework of understanding and control death
• They are thought to complete a cycle – nothing is pending afterwards
• They can be linked with a place of burial – a place of reference and communication with the dead

Question 14

Summary

Answer 14

➢ Death happens later in life

➢ The dying people go through five stages

➢ Death occurs in hospitals, home and hospices

➢ Relatives go through three stages with regard to
mourning