The 14th chapter of the textbook discusses the topic of talking to children about death-related issues. My gut reaction is that I believe this is a great chapter, because it is useful and informative, as well as an extremely important topic for CLS to use in our scope of practice. There were numerous strong points made throughout this chapter. More specifically, there were two particularly strong sections entitled Be Real and Use Appropriate and Simple Language. The Be Real section emphasizes that children should be allowed to make decisions regarding whether they want to visit their loved one who is dying, or if they want to attend any of the services remembering the loved one. This section also highlighted that adults do not recognize
Another challenge that Kelly mentioned was society’s ideas about children and grief. She told us that the Ele’s Place staff is often confronted with this idea that children don’t really grieve, and if they do, it’s only in brief moments and doesn’t require any counseling or services to aid in their recovery. She also noted that there is a stigma around talking about death in our society. Kelly mentioned a local
The Disney Way of Death explains the unfortunate/sad reaction to the evident loss of a loved one (friends and family). The reactions associated were common characteristics that Americans experience when they encountered death- Invisibility, silence, dispassion, institutionalization and taboo. (Laderman, 2000)
1There is an identified need for a community level hospital intervention that will focus on adolescents dealing with grief and loss. The public health groups in hospitals are aimed at disease prevention and health promotion for adults and families who are at high-risk. These groups only focus on members who have high-risk health conditions and risky lifestyle behaviors, but they do not address the idea of death resulting from these high-risk behaviors. Clearly, these public health interventions do not target adolescents who share the commonality of grief and loss. These groups ignore the effects of death and the role it can play in determining one’s actions. Both the public health group and the grief and loss
“What has changed is our way of coping and dealing with death and dying and our dying patients.”(Kubler-Ross 109) In “On the Fear of Death” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, she discusses the changes that have happened over the past few decades. The author believes that these changes are responsible for the increased fear of death, the rising number of emotional problems, and the greater need for understanding of and coping with the problems of death and dying. The author says, “The fact that the children are allowed to stay at home where a fatality has stricken and are in included in the talk, discussion, and fears give them the feeling that hey are not alone in the grief and give them the comfort of shared responsibility and shared mourning.” (Kubler-Ross 110) She believes that allowing the children to stay and be involved in the grieving stage prepares them gradually and
Life has many lessons in store for us. Often times, one of the most terrifying and traumatic lessons a child can learn really has nothing to do with life--but rather, death. Unfortunately, it is a lesson that we all must encounter at some point. No matter the age or circumstance, it is hard to understand how something so dark and mystical can impact our lives so much. It is even harder to cope with the loss of a loved one and to come to terms with knowledge that each day we live, we become one closer to dying.
This week in class we learned about some basic facts about loss, the journey of dying in America, how life expectancy has changed over the years and some examples of how they have changed, we went through some questions like why to study grief and loss, how there is a lack of training for those helping professionals, different settings in which grief can be encountered as well as experiences that could generate reactions, and the benefits of training in loss and grief. Talking about these things made me feel more comfortable with the situation of loss. It also made me feel sad when people share their experiences for some reason. I guess I am more of an emotional person than I thought when it comes to death and dying and usually I just try
Approximately 2,300 pediatric patients with cancer will die each year in the United States. Of these 2,300 patients, more than half will include have a do not resuscitate order (DNR) during their EOL planning (Hinds et al., 2005). During the last month of life, a study found that most children; according to their parents, 53% had little or no fun, 61% were more than a little sad and 63% were not calm and peaceful most of the time (Wolfe et al., 2000). These deaths are usually anticipated, and have been included in the end of life decisions of both patient and family. End of life decisions include, DNRs, withdrawal of life support and aggressive symptom management only. Hinds et al. (2005) study reported that the most frequently reason for feeling okay about a DNR decision include “the Lord is
What was surprising was how direct it was in terms of the topics that discuss why someone dies and different ways a person may die. It addresses murder, suicide, war, and mentions poverty, prejudice, and drug abuse. The book is organized in a way in which they explain the different aspects of death, but will continue to talk about emotions one may feel of death. It addresses the fact that sometimes it may be difficult to come to terms that a loved one will not be around anymore and sometimes one may have dreams or nightmares after a death. Additionally, it informs the reader that it may not be easy to talk about feelings of sadness and loneliness, however, it helps to communicate those feelings if they are able to. The book then explains the changes and questions that come after someone has died; for instance, becoming worried that they or someone they love will die the same way; if a parent died, who will take care of them; and, that they may be afraid of things that they were not before. It also discusses that it is natural to feel anger and in order to cope with such strong feelings, the author gives a list of things to try in an image of a bulletin board in one of the young dinosaur’s room. These activities include punching a pillow, drawing, talking to friends, and different sports to play outside to relieve the “mad feelings”. The authors also display ways to honor the dead, giving the book a sense of unity and diversity. This book would be more suited towards children age’s five to ten and over. According to Jean Piaget’s stages of understanding, these ages would fall under the Preoperative (two to seven years old) and Concrete Operations Stage (seven to eleven years old). The Preoperative stage explains that children two to seven have their language and thinking skills developed and will use symbols to help them understand ideas. They become aware of a world that they are not the focus of; however,
The fourth chapter of the textbook discusses research ethics involving dying and bereaved children. My gut reaction is that the chapter contained valuable information regarding ethical issues with research involving dying and bereaved children, however, it had a confusing structure, unlike the previous chapters. Therefore, this was not my favorite chapter from the text.
The term of one’s death is rarely spoken about, especially at a young age. Therefore, when I was presented with the idea behind this assignment I was immediately held back. Those individuals in my family who have unfortunately passed away have been cremated and consequently no funerals have been held, so I was not aware of what a funeral eulogy truly was. I began researching on how to write one and why they were used, I quickly then noticed the importance and the reality of why family members take pride in commemorating those individuals who are meaningful to them. Pondering on the onset of my funeral I came to the conclusion that I specifically would desire that my younger sister would speak; she is the closest and most important individual
It is believed that children do not experience grief until one has been through adolescents and can distinguish thoughts and feeling from emotions. According to Glass (1991), a child can grasp the notion of death during early childhood; and can begin to grief as early as six months (Willis, 2002). Willis (2002) believes from a moderate perspective that children begin to understand death and grieve approximately at three to four years old. Many times, small children are affected by loss and their grief is often underestimated. Children between the ages of three to five years old fall into stage one. During stage one; children view death as a going away from one place to another. It is believed that the deceased person has just relocated and is living in a new location. Stage two consists of children between the ages of five to nine years of old. In this phase, death can be fixed. It is thought that if one
In the book, “I Miss You: A First Look at Death (First Look at Books)”, it targets the age group 4 to 8. The book introduces to the children that death is a natural process in life, and explains what happens to a person when they die. The book also brings up grief and a sense of loss, explaining that these are all normal feelings for them to have when a loved one dies. I think that the book does an exceptional job of illustrating the concepts told on each page in a way that the children can
Mortality is described beautifully by the young child in which allows for the reader to view death in a positive manner. The author’s view of mortality is that death should not be seen a finality, but rather death should be interpreted in a positive light and embrace those who have passed by keeping them alive in
Presented in our reading are many viewpoints about children with terminal illness. The three biggest viewpoints are the five stages of death, the eight strategies to help surviving children grieve well, and the ability of the child to pick an individual to communicate there going away party with. I’ve heard each of these terms before from prior studies and do agree with the viewpoints. The five stages of death don’t come in order, but individuals will act one way or another when dying whether that is denial,
Nader and Salloum (2011) made clear that, at different ages, children differ in their understanding of the universality, inevitability, unpredictability, irreversibility, and causality of death. They believed, despite the increasing understanding with age of the physical aspects of death, a child may simultaneously hold more than one idea about the characteristics of death. However, factors that complete the determining nature of childhood grieving across different age groups may be a difficult task for a number of reasons including their environment in means of the support they have available, the child’s nature in terms of their personality, genetics, and gender, coping skills and previous experiences, the developmental age, grieving style, whether or not therapy was received, and the relationship to the deceased (Nader & Salloum, 2011). Crenshaw (2005) found that according to our current understanding of childhood traumatic grief and normal grief, thoughts and images of a traumatic nature are so terrifying, horrific, and anxiety provoking that they cause the child to avoid and shut out these thoughts and images that would be comforting reminders of the person who died. The distressing and intrusive images, reminders, and thoughts of the traumatic circumstances of the death, along with the physiological hyper-arousal associated with such re-experiencing, prevent the child from proceeding in a healthy way with the grieving process (Crenshaw, 2005). McClatchy, Vonk, and