Week 12: Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning

Question 1

What does bereavement mean?

Answer 1

An objective fact - a change in status (bereaved widow)

Question 2

What does grief mean?

Answer 2

A response to bereavement - how a person feels (passive response)

Question 3

What does mourning mean?

Answer 3

The culturally patterned expression of the bereaved persons thoughts and feelings (active response)

Question 4

What does freud mean?

Answer 4

Psychological work associated with the loss of a loved one through death

Question 5

What are some thoughts on grief?

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

What are some features of grief?

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

What are the two different types of grief?

Answer 7

1. 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
2. Complicated grief: unspeakable losses, sudden death, death of children, suicide - without usual support systems

Question 8

Name two forms of distress

Answer 8

1. Separation distress (from the deceased)
2. Traumatic distress (shock over what has happened)

Question 9

What are the two strategies for relinquishing the loved one

Answer 9

1. Denial
2. Avoidance

Question 10

What is the difference between enfranchised grief and disenfranchised grief?

Answer 10

1. Enfranchised grief: people who are recognized as grievers (spouse, parents, siblings, child)
2. 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)

Question 11

What are 3 ways grief is disenfranchised?

Answer 11

1. relationship not recognized
2. Loss is not recognized
3. griever is not recognized

Question 12

What is bereavement overload?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is complicated grief?

Answer 13

A continuation of grief over an extended period of time

Question 14

What is dual process model?

Answer 14

Loss-oriented (symptoms of grief, sadness, loss) and restoration-oriented (household duties, financial tasks)

Question 15

What are the 4 phases of mourning?

Answer 15

1. 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)
2. Accept that grief is painful: a necessary process people must go through, subjective distress (depression, crying, loneliness), geographic cures “if I keep moving”
3. 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
4. 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

Question 16

What are ways to help people who are grieving (12)

Answer 16

1. Love does not atrophy with age
2. Assist the bereaved in disposing of personal effects
3. Anticipate difficult times, the first year and even the second year
4. teaching the person skills they are missing (cooking, cleaning, paying bills)
5. Letting the person be responsible for their own lives
6. Helping the person make necessary changes
7. Encouraging person to talk about loss
8. Acknowledge person may feel a variety of things (emotions)
9. Person may feel he/she did not do enough, when in fact they did everything they could (tell them this)
10. Encourage the person to talk about the loved one
11. Don’t worry that you will remind the person of the loss
12. listening

Question 17

What are our fears about grief (3)

Answer 17

1. We won’t remember the sound of his/her voice
2. His/her smell on the favorite sweater, pillow, coat could be lost forever
3. This person who changed our life in so many ways will be forgotten - by others and possibly ourselves. The value of remembering

Question 18

What is some Grief in other countries?

Answer 18

Italy Earthquake 2009

Syria chemical attack

Question 19

How long should someone grief

Answer 19

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