...Death and Dying and Loses in Children Debra Mayers HNG 577: Dr. Sprung 10/28/2012 Death and Dying and Losses in Children * The death of a parent is one of the most difficult events a child might face. * It prematurely exposes the child to the unpredictability of life and the tenuous nature of daily existence. * Children loosing something or someone can significantly change his or her lives. * Helping children understand the dying process will enable one to understand the grieving process. * If children cannot understand the grieving process, it can alter their lives and create unhealthy habits into adulthood. (Bushardt, Reamer & Taylor, 2011). Loss and Grief * Grief is a natural reaction to loss and is ongoing for children developmental process. * Children reacts to grief is different and may be influenced by many factors. * Children s’ perceptions of death reflects on their understanding and maturity. * Children’s maturity depends on their age, cognitive ability, and their existing experiences with life. * Children responding to death are strongly influenced by socialization and their understanding and the maturity level of that individual child. (Heath, Leavy, Hansen, Ryan, Lawrence, & Sonntag, 2008). Issues Facing Families * Teachers and family care providers, family members and counselors can create an environment that supports the children emotional needs. * When educators create that environment with...
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...5 year old child conceptualizes and responds to loss. Introduction Almost every person in the world, at one time or another, experiences events that can be considered major losses (Harvey and Weber 1998). Loss weather personal, material, or symbolic will affect us all, children too can face different levels and types of losses (Hooyman and Kramer, 2006; Viorist, 1986) cited in The Person Health and Wellbeing,(1st ed.,pp.211). There is a misconception in our society that children cannot understand or have little knowledge about death. But children of various ages and stages understand death and loss in different ways. (TRAUMA AND LOSS: Research and Interventions, Volume 3, Number 1, 2003) Jean Piaget cognitive stages of development in children are proved to be very important in children’s understanding of death, dying and grief. Childhood grief and development factors are interrelated: the age and stage of development of a child at the time of his or her parent’s death will strongly influence the ways in which the child reacts and adapts to the loss.( Garber, 1988, p. 272) The Death of a Parent: Healing Children’s Grief September( 3rd, 2009);Beth Patterson, MA, LP) A child Understanding of Death A child understanding of death occurs in the age 5-7, when according to Piaget’s theory child progress through preoperational stage of development to concrete-operational stage. (Kenyon 2001 cited in The Person Health and Well Being, 1st ed., pp272). A 5 year old child who is at preoperational...
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... 2016). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care for children as a service that is provided to the terminally ill and their families to alleviate and prevent the suffering of both the patient and their loved ones. Palliative care addresses physical, spiritual, psychological, and social stressors in the family’s life from the time of the diagnosis to the death of the child. Following the death of the child, most palliative care organizations provide a type of bereavement support...
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...three children are different ages and have lost different role models in their lives, but they share one thing in common. All three are experiencing the grieving process. The grieving process in children differs very much from the grieving process of an adult. This must be taken into consideration by Early Childhood Educators when teaching children how to cope with this grieving process, as it is an Early Childhood Educator’s role to ensure that all children develop healthy emotional and social habits (Clarissa A., 2002) . To develop these healthy habits, it is essential that Early Childhood Educators know how a child’s concept of death is constructed, which gives caregivers and educators important information and helps them respond more sensitively to what children might feel and experience (Clarissa A., 2002). The online journal article, called “The Grieving Process in Children: Strategies for Understanding, Educating, and Reconciling Children's Perceptions of Death” (Clarissa A., 2002), clearly gives an overview of how children understand death, and suggestions for educators about how to help children through grief and loss. The website, www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au (Better Health Channel, 2013), also gives an overview of a child’s reactions to loss and grief, and how to share feelings of grief and go through the grieving...
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...The effects of behaviour and development when a child suffer from a bereavement The loss of someone close through death is a traumatic and painful event for the majority of people. For many children and young people the death of a parent, sibling, friend or relative can be extremely difficult because of the child’s inability to understand and articulate their feelings. Similarly young people who have been bereaved whilst they are on the cusp of adulthood can find the emotions that they are experiencing to be frighteningly intense. Grief is individual and the processes of mourning are never the same between two people. However some of the responses to death and bereavement can be similar depending on the age, level of comprehension, relationship with the person who has died and the emotional resilience of the mourner. The following responses are common Alternating play and sadness Members of the school staff may be the first to recognise changes in the bereaved child or young person’s behaviour outside of their immediate family, who may not have noticed if they too are grieving. Young children may appear to be sad and withdrawn one minute then might begin playing with building blocks or dolls the next. This is because unlike adults, bereaved children do not possess the emotional reserves to grieve continuously and they will need respite from their grief. Play allows the bereaved child to shift their focus from their grief, albeit for a short while, until they are sufficiently...
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...Harrison Zacher Death and Dying Research Paper Bereavement The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult experiences to endure in a human lifetime. The grieving process often encompasses the survivors’ entire world and affects their emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and physical selves in unexpected ways. After a major loss, such as the death of a spouse or child, up to a third of the people most directly affected will suffer detrimental effects on their physical and/or mental health (Jacobs 1993). What is Grief and it’s Stages Grief refers to the psychological reaction to the bereavement, the death of a loved one. When a person dies who has been a close companion and with whom we have had a close bond with, many changes in our life have to be taken in. Death of a long-term partner can force on us a need to redefine ourselves and it is not an easy task. Grief becomes a problem when someone gets stuck in grief, this is know as “complicated grief” or “chronic grief”. Factors that contribute to this include a lack of family support and remaining overly focused on past memories. Returning to normal everyday activities is the most obvious sign that the grieving stage is over. Grieving becomes problematic when it lasts longer than six months. Signs of this include loneliness, emptiness, regret, not acknowledging the death, and avoiding places that would be reminders of the deceased person. It is only problematic if these symptoms are excessive and interfere...
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...by significant loss. It transcends mere sorrow, encompassing a wide spectrum of emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, and despair. Beyond the emotional realm, grief often manifests in physical symptoms, disrupting daily life with fatigue, loss of appetite, and sleep disturbances. Importantly, grief is not confined to the death of a loved one, but extends to other profound losses, including the dissolution of relationships, job loss, or declining...
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...University HLT-310V A loss of a loved one elicits the natural reaction of grief from human beings. Such a loss is a source of psychological and emotional trauma, especially when the friend or relative who passes away does so before the expected time in the “social clock (Myers, 2011, p. 184)”—the death of a child can cause a longer and more intense period of grief than the death of an older loved one. While grief is a natural response to lost relatives and friends, it is beneficial for an individual’s psychological and emotional well-being to transition away from a state of mourning without any long-term detrimental effects to one’s well-being. Healthy grief can be described as a manner of experiencing and expressing grief that allows for this smooth transition. Grief is largely a cultural phenomenon, with different practices and rituals that vary from culture to culture with regard to overcoming grief (Lehto & Stein, 2009, p. 29). This paper will look at some of these cultural variances, with the comparison and contrast in the views of grief among the modern Western world with the Kübler-Ross model, Western theological tradition in the Book of Job and the Eastern theological tradition, with the views of Buddhism on grief. The paper will also look at the conception and role of job in relation to grief in the three views of grief tackled by this paper. The Kübler-Ross model of grief is more popularly known as the Five Stages of Grief, which structures the grieving process as a cycle...
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...The Continuing Process of Parental Grief Also, sometimes a parent's love makes them unable to let go. I've seen so many parents put their needs above their infant's because they just can't bear to suffer the grief of losing a child. It's heartbreaking when you can see parents in total denial and you know that the end will come one way or another but they just can't accept it. I don't know if that's the case here or not, but it's certainly a possibility. Parental Grief The theme of parental mourning has been a universal one throughout the centuries. In the literature on bereavement, writers repeat certain themes, thoughts, and reflections; they talk of the powerful and often conflicting emotions involved in "the pain of grief and the spiral of mourning; [they refer to] the heartbreak at the heart of things...grief's contradictions"; they speak of parents devastated by grief (Moffat 1992, xxiii). It is frequently said that the grief of bereaved parents is the most intense grief known. When a child dies, parents feel that a part of them has died, that a vital and core part of them has been ripped away. Bereaved parents indeed do feel that the death of their child is "the ultimate deprivation" (Arnold and Gemma 1994, 40). The grief caused by their child's death is not only painful but profoundly disorienting-children are not supposed to die. These parents are forced to confront an extremely painful and stressful paradox; they are faced with a situation in which they must deal...
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...description of a struggle that happens all too often. In this book Lynn Schimmel tells the story of Sarah. Lynn is a women’s health nurse practitioner and we find out that Sarah is one of her clients. We learn that Sarah is having some marriage difficulty. Sarah’s husband, Rick, is an alcoholic and they have many disagreements about having children. Eventually they do have a son. Trouble in her marriage continued when Sarah brought up the idea of having another baby. She so longed to have another child but Rick disagreed adamantly. When she unexpectedly got pregnant it seemed that everyone was against keeping the baby. After choosing to have an abortion, Sarah struggled with the guilt of her decision. Seeing Sarah’s pain and sadness Rick agreed to try and have another child, and also joined AA. At 38 weeks, an ultrasound revealed a birth defect that was incompatible with life. Their baby, Emily, was stillborn. The sadness was overwhelming for Sarah. Lynn helped her through the grieving process and showed her the tools to get back on her feet. Eventually Sarah got pregnant again and gave birth to health girl. This narrative showed real pain and struggle that happens in the medical field a long with the rewarding benefits of patient advocacy and the therapeutic relationship between patient and nurse. Looking Back When I was a freshman in high school my cousin, had a stillbirth. After carrying the baby they called Aiden for 6 1/2 months she went into pre-term labor. The...
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...effects for different people. Rosario states that “grief transforms” in which is referring to the many shapes it comes in (2004). Grief can be experienced physically, emotionally, socially, or mentally depending on the individual. Sleeplessness, appetite changes, physical problems, or possible illness are examples of physical reactions. Emotional reactions can include anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness, and utter despair. Those impacted socially experience feelings of responsibility for other family members, having to communicate with family or friends, feelings of being isolated, or going back to work. These are few of the many forms it takes for all of us, but it is not until researching the subject that I found what really affects grieving. I chose this topic in order to find this solution due to a particular event in my life. That day was the death of my beloved uncle. It happened one evening in the summer of 2009. An urgent call came through from one of our relatives from overseas. The news was of our uncle’s passing. My uncle, whom I had loved dearly and always looked forward to seeing every summer, was gone. I looked at my crying mother and then turned to see my weeping younger sister. Both were crying, but I was not. I had been informed that a member of my family had passed away, yet I did not cry. Questions began buzzing in my head. “Is there something wrong with me? Why...
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...outburst of anger. Robert Frost illustrates in his poem “Home Burial” how even though the husband and wife are both grieving for the death of their child, they each handle their grief in different ways. “Home Burial” revolves around a husband and wife who are at opposition over how to deal with the death of their child. The entire scene in the poem takes place on a staircase. At the beginning, the wife, Amy, is at the top of the stairs and her husband is at the bottom. By the end of the poem, he is at the top of the stairs and she is at the bottom. The opposite’s ends of the staircase represent the conflicting ways they deal with their grief. Amy expresses her grief with Amy is suffering from extreme sorrow over the loss of her first born child and is unable to stop grieving. Her grief causes her to lash out at her husband because she feels he is being insensitive and unaffected by the death of their child. Amy first begins to feel as if her husband’s grief was not as great as hers when she saw him “making the gravel leap and leap in air”. Amy feels that if her husband had any feelings at all that he would not have been able to dig their own child’s grave. She no longer knows this man who can dig their child’s grave and then come in and “talk about everyday concerns.” She does not understand how he can make small talk about things when their child has just died. As he talks, she thinks “he still had “the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave. “ The...
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...Coping with the loss of someone or something you love is one of life’s biggest challenges. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience all kinds of difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness. The pain of grief can also disrupt your physical health, making it difficult to sleep, eat, or even think straight. These are normal reactions to significant loss. But while there is no right or wrong way to grieve, there are healthy ways to cope with the pain that, in time, can ease your sadness and help you come to terms with your loss, find new meaning, and move on with your life. What you can do Acknowledge your pain Accept that grief can trigger many different and unexpected...
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...DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2011.553312 BEREAVEMENT EXPERIENCES OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS OVER TIME AFTER THE DEATH OF A CHILD DUE TO CANCER RIFAT ALAM Department of Psychology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada MARU BARRERA Department of Psychology, Haematology=Oncology Program, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada NORMA D’AGOSTINO Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Survivorship Program, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAVID B. NICHOLAS Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada GERALD SCHNEIDERMAN Department of Psychiatry, Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada The authors investigated longitudinally bereavement in mothers and fathers whose children died of cancer. Thirty-one parents were interviewed 6 and 18 months post-death. Analyses revealed parental differences and changes over time: (a) employment—fathers were more work-focused; (b) grief reactions—mothers expressed more intense grief reactions that lessened over time; (c) coping—mothers were more child-focused, fathers more task-focused; (d) relationship with bereaved siblings—mothers actively nurtured relationship with child; (e) spousal relationship—parents reported diversity in their relationship over time; and (f) relationship with extended...
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...Experiencing the Unthinkable HN220 – Kaplan University May 12, 2015 Experiencing the Unthinkable Throughout life, every single person in the world will experience the unthinkable. Experiencing the dying moments or death of a person, whether you love them or not, can be a difficult time. Grieving is a natural healing process that occurs after a significant loss. Moving on and starting anew can also be difficult Sally and Mike have recently lost their 6 year old son to cancer. Sally is having a difficult time with the loss and Mike while still grieving the loss has moved on and accepted it. Mike is there to support his wife but doesn’t exactly know what he needs to do. Sally is feeling that she should have died instead of her son. Sally cannot accept that her son is no longer alive and is telling her God to take her and bring her son back. Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief When working with someone that is dealing with the loss of a loved one a good tool to use would be Kubler-Ross’s 5 Stages. The first stage is denial and isolation. The first reaction to learning of terminal illness or death of a cherished loved one is to deny the reality of the situation. We block out the words and hide from the facts. This is a temporary response that carries us through the first wave of pain. The second stage is anger. As the effects of denial and isolation wears off anger sets in. The anger may be aimed at inanimate objects, complete strangers, friends or family. Stage three is...
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