This book draws on recent research and cutting-edge ideas about bereavement and carers’ experiences across the life course to explore carers’ experience of loss and discuss their specific needs prior and or following the death of those they care for. Whether care provided is related to a long term or life limiting condition, many carers experience a multitude of losses including indefinite loss characterised by the loss of a taken-for-granted future, and an inability to plan for the future. Carers may also experience anticipatory grief as multiple losses such as companionship, personal freedom, and control manifest. While many carers are dedicated and committed to their role, they are subject to burnout and disenfranchised grief. When the role of caregiver ends as a result of the death of those cared for, this can represent a major change and a period of significant adjustment for carers leading to a range of emotions experienced. This book presents and discusses research findings, practitioner perspectives, and a wealth of personal accounts to illuminate this vital but neglected area and extend our understanding of loss for carers across the life course. This interdisciplinary and interprofessional volume brings together authors from a wide range of backgrounds, including carers themselves. It is an important contribution to the burgeoning literature around the role and experiences of carers and will interest academics, students and practitioners in health and social care, counselling, and psychology with an interest in loss and bereavement.

Ten years after the death of Elisabeth K bler-Ross, this commemorative edition of her final book combines practical wisdom, case studies, and the authors' own experiences and spiritual insight to explain how the process of grieving helps us live with loss. Includes a new introduction and resources section. Elisabeth K bler-Ross's On Death and Dying changed the way we talk about the end of life. Before her own death in 2004, she and David Kessler completed On Grief and Grieving, which looks at the way we experience the process of grief. Just as On Death and Dying taught us the five stages of death--denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance--On Grief and Grieving applies these stages to the grieving process and weaves together theory, inspiration, and practical advice, including sections on sadness, hauntings, dreams, isolation, and healing. This is "a fitting finale and tribute to the acknowledged expert on end-of-life matters" (Good Housekeeping).

Losses may provide a turning point where an individual faces personal and social choices. Still, one may derive significance through the experience of loss, while another may encounter bereavement with less consequence. "Complicated Grieving and Bereavement: Understanding and Treating People Experiencing Loss" examines complicated grief in special populations, including the mentally ill, POW-MIA survivors, the differentially-abled, suicide survivors, bereaved children, those experiencing death at birth, death in schools, and palliative-care death.

Reading this book, caregivers will find ways to increase their effectiveness by understanding more fully what their care receivers are experiencing, by finding creative ways to assist them in processing what is happening, and by working with them to discern responses to loss that are emotionally healthy, intellectually coherent, spiritually genuine, culturally sensitive, relationally authentic, and personally fulfilling.

Through firsthand accounts and research, Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly focuses on the education, training, and support of individuals who care for the elderly. This book provides caregivers with methods to cope with grief and loss and will help educators design programs that meet the needs of their consumers: the elderly and their families, friends, and service providers. From Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly, you'll learn how to cope with the stress and emotions of caregiving and improve the quality of services to your patients. With an emphasis on caregivers of the institutionalized elderly and the special services provided by clergy, chaplains, and pastoral counselors, Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly offers the caregiver or educator several model workshops focusing on grief, loss, and bereavement care. Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly contains proven methods and strategies that will sharpen and enhance your caregiving skills, including: focusing on the emotional responses and phases of dying, including denial, anger, and acceptance, to help patients deal with death considering physical and administrative atmosphere and your elderly population when setting goals and designing workshops to provide optimal patient/resident care discussing the themes of grief and loss, stress management, handling change, and promoting self-care for caregivers in workshops and through self-evaluations developing workshops that open with grief history surveys and attitude checklists, discuss normative development and issues of old age, and have themes based on the biological, psychosocial, and spiritual needs of the elderly person providing caregivers with an opportunity to practice what they have learned through case studies, simulated role play, open discussions, and care plan designing thinking about your own mortality and learning about your feelings and ideas of growing old Utilized at a psychiatric nursing home facility of New Hampshire Hospital, the workshop exercises in Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly have allowed caregivers to express personal feelings; talk about beliefs and experiences; learn about biological, psychosocial, and spiritual processes of grief and phases of bereavement; and apply these understandings and insights into typical caregiving situations. Grief Education for the Caregivers of the Elderly gives you the framework for such a program, using vignettes, composite case material, poetry, and a holistic approach to health care to emphasize the importance of your emotional health and enhanced care of the elderly.

The loss of a loved one is one of the most painful experiences that most of us will ever have to face in our lives. This book recognises that there is no single solution to the problems of bereavement but that an understanding of grief can help the bereaved to realise that they are not alone in their experience. Long recognised as the most authoritative work of its kind, this new edition has been revised and extended to take into account recent research findings on both sides of the Atlantic. Parkes and Prigerson include additional information about the different circumstances of bereavement including traumatic losses, disasters, and complicated grief, as well as providing details on how social, religious, and cultural influences determine how we grieve. Bereavement provides guidance on preparing for the loss of a loved one, and coping after they have gone. It also discusses how to identify the minority in whom bereavement may lead to impairment of physical and/or mental health and how to ensure they get the help they need. This classic text will continue to be of value to the bereaved themselves, as well as the professionals and friends who seek to help and understand them.

If we wish to understand loss experiences we must learn details of survivors' stories. The new version of How We Grieve: Relearning the World tells in-depth tales of survival to illustrate the poignant disruption of life and suffering that loss entails. It shows how through grieving we overcome challenges, make choices, and reshape our lives. These intimate treatments of coping with loss address the needs of grieving people and those who hope to support and comfort them. The accounts promote understanding of grieving itself, encourage respect for individuality and the uniqueness of loss experiences, show how to deal with helplessness in the face of "choiceless" events, and offer guidance for caregivers. The stories make it clear that grieving is not about living passively through stages or phases. We are not so alike when we grieve; our experiences are complex and richly textured. Nor is grieving about coming down with "grief symptoms". No one can treat us to make things better. No one can grieve for us. Grieving is instead an active process of coping and relearning how to be and how to act in a world where loss transforms our lives. Loss forces us to relearn things and places; relationships with others, including fellow survivors, the deceased, even God; and our selves, our daily life patterns, and the meanings of our life stories. This revision adds an introductory essay about developments in the author's thinking about grieving as "relearning the world." It highlights and clarifies its most distinctive and still salient themes. It elaborates on how his thinking about these themes has expanded and deepened since the first edition. And it places his treatment of those themes in the broader context of current writings on grief and loss.

Helps the reader to confront and address the personal issues of experienced and feared loss, thus enabling them, as a professional carer, to work more effectively with others. Presents a clear insight into the links between theoretical, personal and professional issues. Provides highly practical guidance on coping with the most difficult situations. Structured questions are designed to trigger consideration of key issues.

Supporting Young Children Experiencing Loss and Grief provides early years practitioners and Key Stage 1 teachers with practical advice to support children experiencing feelings related to change and loss. Using key case studies and interviews with children and adults, this important text uncovers best-practice techniques to help children talk about their feelings. Covering more than bereavement, it considers the loss children feel when they move home, undergo a change in routine, experience their parents' or carers' separation, move settings or lose contact with a close friend, nursery practitioner or teacher. Providing answers to the key question of how to support children who have feelings of loss and grief, Supporting Young Children Experiencing Loss and Grief is a must-read text for all those working with young children in caring environments who are looking to provide children with the tools they need to talk about their emotions.

Dealing with the social experience of grief, loss and bereavement are challenging areas for everyone, including health and social care practitioners who are often well placed to offer help and support to the bereaved. This book draws together a comprehensive range of worldwide evidence for understanding and supporting the bereaved in a variety of health and social care contexts. It can be used by practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds in both health and social care to gain an appreciation of bereavement and its associated support and care. Additionally, it can be used for personal and professional development by practitioners who want to enhance their own and others’ practice with the bereaved in specific contexts or organisations. The book may also be of value to those undertaking post graduate study who want to gain a wider understanding of the evidence related to bereavement and bereavement care practice in health and social care and may be seeking to add to the body of evidence in this field.