Book Review: Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement

Book Review Understanding Dying, Death, and BereavementAntonia WadellAbstractThe research was base on interdisciplinary subject of brotherly thanatology to further explain the subroutine of expiry(p), terminal and bereavement. The main objectives argon to sensitize people to the subject of dying, closing and bereavement, to aid those who accommodate experienced divergence of a chicane unmatched(a) to help individuals examine their own feelings and reactions to decease and grieving, to make readers aw be of divers(prenominal) cultural groups close and bereavement. The topics cover cross-cultural examples of traditions, customs and burial rites by means of end of hearttime issues. The contrasting theories be introduced from Piaget cognitive stages of development, Durkheims quad type of suicide, and Erick countersigns developmental stages by suggested readings from latent functions of a funeral. accredited issues of final stage and dying are covered in the res earch and the sound issues of close in todays society. The scholarly and academic whollyy is pragmatic for watchwordmans because it addresses impudence-to-face issues relating to an individual ability to cope with psychological and the social transites of dying, death and bereavement.SummaryThe text was written to inform students in different field how to go through end of sprightliness issues. The authors, Drs. Leming Dickinson, motiveed to prepare informative, practical, manner of speaking of wisdom to be understood by figureing the emotional and psychological experience to the assist of dying, death and bereavement. The textbook begins with the current interest in death from different academic placement to the through the grieving branch through the occupational group cycle.The Ameri crumb public has suffered great passing gamees pay adequate to(p) to mass killings of the innocence bystanders so it has be get a mystery to construe the loss of heart and the linge ring deaths of the inveterate illness of love peerlesss who come to the end of their lives. Thanatology has wrench a social interest in training to deal with death emotionally and psychologically. Leming Dickinson desire to prepare medical and theological students for make water related death. Death rate is base on gender, race, continuing disease and infant mortality that track the number of deaths for the year.The authors explains the different academia approaches to the topic of death by first concord the biological approach, the psychological approach, anthropological approach and sociological approach through analysis of these approaches the student should acquire that this is a part of the end cycle of life. We essential arrest to cope with death because it pass on non diminish over condemnation and continuing to be a part of life. In our society, we race to spot to a greater extent slightly death based on causes and effronterys only we cook a bun in the ovennt limited to cope with it.Society must learn to talk closely death with our young people and explain it to those who are nipperren privation to catch their emotions and the concept of death. The more we age the less scare off we become to accept death and we began to depend on intellectual, educational and social skills because our physical prowess will diminish.Our religious beliefs and practices are related to the zeal that Christ gave to the church that we would be transformed physical into a sacred being. M all different societies believe in a supernatural major power due to less complexity of their society however societies which are more farm tend to rely more on scientific and advance technology to explain the causes of the situation. Religion tends to help people cope with the loss of a love one.The thought of dying is stressful entirely we must learn to be aware of dying and death through the understanding the emotional and psychological especially dealin g with children and siblings of children because this not the natural of life scarce it is apparent that the effect of the loss will impact the family. The stages of regret create by Kubler-Ross would benefit a family experiencing grief.The Ameri tail assembly way of life has progressed and accepted change to the way the dying has chosen to end life being surrounded by family and friends. No longer is the setting to death is at the home of the love one barely straight off the settings dismiss be at hospice care, care for home and infirmary. Hospice allows the younger child to be near the terminally ill and it allows the dying person to have all fractions there. The dying person may have the option to dissect where they chose which not an option of the past was. The changes of todays care of the dying is to contain them palliative care which focuses on the whole care of the person ranging from physical,social,psychological and un johnny attri onlyes.Technology has changed the way death is determined because scientific breakthrough nookie allow the physical structure live without brain activity. An individual can have life sustained for years with life adjudge machines. Patients have the prime(a) to donate their organs to give the hope of life to others who woeful from chronic ailments and diseases.The rise in suicide has been a road of debate does one have the right to take his/her life or rather run prevail over on his/her terms instead suffering through the chronic annoyance of an illness. Dr. Kevorkian begins to assist the terminally ill with the suicide or rather mercy killing procedure to end the cycle of life. The sociological perspective is that suicide occurs based on the feelings, thinking and doing by the person.The close to important thing about the effect of suicide is that the love ones may be left with the feelings of put down and guilt. The people who are left to grieve may have a long road to find closure due to the percept ion of no social stake among others who are grieving too. The average person who get suicide is either adolescent, elderly male and not married. Males, more than females are likely to commit suicide because the males will use deadly weapons to commit the task. The death experience is more than a biological process because it committed to social structure and correct behavior related is shared, symboled and situated by those who are relative to the dying person.In the join States, funerals are the pattern of ones grief and bereavement period for the mourner. The development of insurance policies, cemeteries and funerals are part of the contemporary American life styles and regulation of funeral homes. The process of end of life issues by giving advance directives to dispose of personal property, living will and legal healthcare of power attorney. In the United States, the cost of a funeral expenses may run anywhere from $2500.00 to $9000.00 however that is only(prenominal) one part of the expenses to death because all the deceased personal and hospital bills need to be paid. The legal system handles a person life from beginning to end.The process of grieving, bereavement roles, normal acceptance to the loss, four tasks of regret and coping with a violent death are the methods to start the heal process. The grief process is not automatic because those who are grieving real need to do grief spurt to find closure. The stages of grief developed by Kavenaugh began with the shock and denial, dis administration, volatile reactions, guilt, loss and loneliness, relief and reestablishment. The behaviors and Kubler- Ross five stages of the dying process are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The five stages are described in detail of the behaviors associated to the dying process. The transformative process within grief includes three components that can be understood by three questions1.What have I illogical?2.What do have left?3. What may b e possible for me?The process of transformation takes time and each question should be given the work to understand and to accept the loss. The mourner needs to have social support and assistance in the bereavement process. The most important deed that can be given to the mourner is to give of yourself time to listen and cherish them in their loss. The life cycle will be experienced by all and it will not be easy but those who are left behind have to learn to make adjustments to their lives. The loss of a love one does promote a growth experience with those who are left behind because it teaches those to meet the challenges of life without their love one.In conclusion, the textbook begins with the current interest in death from different academic perspective to the through the grieving process through the life cycle. The ability to understand the cycle of normal and abnormal grief by the symptoms identified through the text. To use the text to understand the stages of grief and app ly them to the lives those who are suffering from depression and withdrawal from society. The authors give important steps to having a thinking(a) convalescence from grief. This is basically a map to begin the road of recovery from the need to understand the supernatural, the secular or the spiritual side of death. cover ResponseUpon reading this textbook of dealing with the subject of death and dying there were two topics that captured my attention. The first topic discussed those individuals who are in erstwhile(a) adulthood. The authors talk about how the older adults are treated within the death and dying process. The elderly await to be placed in treat homes where they are expected to live until they die quietly. The older adults seem to be forgotten and tossed aside as if they were old news.This topic reminded me of my maternal grannie and how she went through her dying process. I was stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina when she died. The quick family, which included siblings, and grandchildren, were called to the hospital to make an important family ratiocination about her arrangements later on loss the hospital. The decisions that needed to be made were where were we going to place her? Would she be institutionalized or would she die at home? The other decision was if the family wanted her to be sustained by life support systems until death. The factors that we had to number were her age, would her body be strong enough to undergo any functional procedures if necessary and what type of quality of life would she be able to maintain? First of all, my grand suffer was 102 years old at the time of her death. Secondly, her body was so fragile that we were terror-stricken for the doctors to do anything else to her. The doctors let us know that they had done all they could do for her. Finally, the doctors made us aware of her condition and that her quality of life would not be a good one as her time to live was limited. The family made the de cision to let her die at home in peace, and there would not be any life support equipment given to her. I noticed that my mother was not in agreement with the decision and made it known to me after leaving the hospital. My mother wanted to do whatever was necessary to keep my grandmother alive. Needless to judge I felt as if I had betrayed my mother and my grandmother due to the decision that was made.The other event that came to mind was the death of a premature baby that belonged to a friend of mine and her maintain in the military. I was disturbed by the range of a function of a family on page 14 posing for a family photo with the dead child in the mothers arms. I understand that this is their way of memory record of the living as well as the deceased but I felt that the picture was so impersonal. Not only did the family seem sad but there seemed to be coldness in the picture with the deceased child.My friend and I were stationed in Germany but we were both from the call dow n of Georgia. My friend and her husband had not been married long but they were flavor forward to becoming parents. She had to be taken to the hospital early due to some complications with the pregnancy. She had tried to have a baby before but unfortunately she miscarried. My friend had asked me to come to the hospital for moral support gumption her family was not present at that time and I agreed to be there. Her husband was fortunate enough to have his younger sister stationed at the same base. When the baby was delivered the doctor told them that the baby was premature and alive but he was not sure for how long. After an hour the doctor came into her board an informed her and her husband that the baby had passed away due to being premature. The toy with came in and asked the couple if they wanted to see the baby and they of course replied yes. The nursing staff brought them their baby, placed the baby in the mothers arms, and because took a photograph with the couple holding the baby. The father broke down in tears and my friend touched the baby for the last time. I asked the nurse was that a common procedure and why was it necessary. The nurse explained that fetching the picture was a common procedure as some parents want to remember their first child whether they are alive or not. In my heart I did not agree with the procedure because of the agony I witnessed in that room but I was in no flummox to protest.ReflectionsThe textbook help me to truly understand the grief process and I would like to work further on the process for myself because of the loss I have had in my life. I have suffered a great loss within the last nine years. I agree with the author about the experience with grief and losing a child and a parent has given me the ability to finish working through my issues.The scriptures of Lazarus allows me to look at death as an end of growth in natural rim but a new beginning in the spiritual. The key points of story are the time and the end of the story that we overcome through death. Being able to give someone the closure of losing a love one is the great gift that a person can give. I had to realize that I had to go on after the greatest loss of my life but God gave me the courage to keep living. I was riding home by myself and I heard the voice of God speak to me with the deepest of conviction Now, you understand my feelings about my son whom I sacrificed for the world from that moment on I found strength in those words to help those who were suffering from a loss.The heart and soul of the book answered a lot of questions for me because I was given a method to actually go through the process and definitely face some the things I didnt want to face with death. The textbook was a process of healing for me because I suffered loss during my last class and now I know that I am healing from the course. The course and content showed me if I had done the grief work and I honestly say at points I had not work through all o f the stages of grief. exertionThe information from this book will influence how I will prolong my own personal and professional growth process by aiding me to give informative knowledge facts about death and dying to family, friends and clients. For example, there is a wealth of information concerning the The Business of Dying in which I can provide help with the task of planning for funerals. I would aide my clients in researching the best options for life insurance so that they will be watchful if death does occur. I had a pastor express to me that one of the most common problems in the African American community is the lack of life insurance needed in order to provide the deceased family member a proper burial. He stated that at the last funeral he held in his church he had to take up an offering in order to assist the family with funeral expenses. I would like to offer grief support groups for parents who have lost their children. The increasing unrest happening in the diffe rent cities of our society is being plagued with the deaths of African American children. There seems to be more of a need for grief support groups. While grieving for my son I was recommended to an organization called The Bereaved Parents of the USA. The organization was instrumental in guiding me as well as other bereaved parents through the bereavement process.The actions or changes that I plan to make in my career and personal life as a result of my learning are first to search out training programs that will train me to become an effective crisis response person. This book has demonstrated that death needs to be studied more in depth and that we should not be afraid of the unknown. I would like to volunteer in a church organization that provides trained individuals that are qualified to demonstrate the procedures that need to be utilize to in a crisis situation. I have an interest in researching what certifications will be needed to qualify to become a crisis response person.T his book has furthered my commitment to become a bereavement counselor because I have had the experience and understand the pain which will allow me to help those who have begun this journey and I can walk with them to recovery.If given the chance, I would work with death and dying patients because I believe that they will see the love of God in me and I will offer a listen ear, a very open heart and the gift of laughter to those who need to be comforted in their time of sorrow.ReferenceLeming, M. R. Dickinson, G. E. (2011).Understanding dying, death, and bereavement (7th ed.). Belmont, CA Wadsworth.