Week 12: Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning Flashcards
What does bereavement mean?
An objective fact - a change in status (bereaved widow)
What does grief mean?
A response to bereavement - how a person feels (passive response)
What does mourning mean?
The culturally patterned expression of the bereaved persons thoughts and feelings (active response)
What does freud mean?
Psychological work associated with the loss of a loved one through death
What are some thoughts on grief?
- Grief is not the only response to bereavement - it can also include anger or indifference
- Grief is itself a medicine (cathartic)
- It is the whole person that grieves and this person is part of a network of interpersonal relationships
- Grief is romance in reverse
What are some features of grief?
- Loss of a loved one is a single event with multiple consequences
- Feelings associated with grief include: relief, regret, sadness, anger, abandonment
- Grief comes in waves and can come months, even years later
- Vulnerability to grief often remains, although subsequent episodes are likely to be briefer
- Grief and mourning are varied from person to person and culture to culture
- Mammals - elephants, dogs, monkeys, lions - have all demonstrated grief like behavior
What are the two different types of grief?
- Anticipatory grief: disconnecting from the person before it is time, may not be time to grieve, secondary morbidity, bereaved caregivers may not have more intense feelings of loss than others who were not in this role
- Complicated grief: unspeakable losses, sudden death, death of children, suicide - without usual support systems
Name two forms of distress
- Separation distress (from the deceased)
- Traumatic distress (shock over what has happened)
What are the two strategies for relinquishing the loved one
- Denial
- Avoidance
What is the difference between enfranchised grief and disenfranchised grief?
- Enfranchised grief: people who are recognized as grievers (spouse, parents, siblings, child)
- Grief that people experience when they incur a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, publicly mourned or socially supported (co-workers, neighbors, ex-spouses, disabilities)
What are 3 ways grief is disenfranchised?
- relationship not recognized
- Loss is not recognized
- griever is not recognized
What is bereavement overload?
The impact of multiple losses in a short period of time. You are unable to get over the first loss before the second, third, etc. happen. Like COVID, 9/11/ other tragic events
What is complicated grief?
A continuation of grief over an extended period of time
What is dual process model?
Loss-oriented (symptoms of grief, sadness, loss) and restoration-oriented (household duties, financial tasks)
What are the 4 phases of mourning?
- Accept the reality of the loss: person is gone and will not be returning (not always easy, even if death is expected denial of the loss can consist of extremes)
- Accept that grief is painful: a necessary process people must go through, subjective distress (depression, crying, loneliness), geographic cures “if I keep moving”
- Adjusting to environment that no longer includes the deceased: person realizes he/she is now alone, responsible for a variety of tasks previously under the care of the deceased
- Finding an enduring connection with the deceased while also finding your way in a new way: redirecting energy to other people, other things, other activities
What are ways to help people who are grieving (12)
- Love does not atrophy with age
- Assist the bereaved in disposing of personal effects
- Anticipate difficult times, the first year and even the second year
- teaching the person skills they are missing (cooking, cleaning, paying bills)
- Letting the person be responsible for their own lives
- Helping the person make necessary changes
- Encouraging person to talk about loss
- Acknowledge person may feel a variety of things (emotions)
- Person may feel he/she did not do enough, when in fact they did everything they could (tell them this)
- Encourage the person to talk about the loved one
- Don’t worry that you will remind the person of the loss
- listening
What are our fears about grief (3)
- We won’t remember the sound of his/her voice
- His/her smell on the favorite sweater, pillow, coat could be lost forever
- This person who changed our life in so many ways will be forgotten - by others and possibly ourselves. The value of remembering
What is some Grief in other countries?
Italy Earthquake 2009
Syria chemical attack
How long should someone grief
Griefing period is different for everyone depending on the trauma, but the grief process to take a year or longer. A grieving person must resolve the emotional and life changes that come with the death of a loved one. The pain may become less intense, but it’s normal to feel emotionally involved with the deceased for many years
