Death and Dying and Grieving

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• Chapter 11
• Death and Dying and Grieving

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Death and Dying

• A death system is the collection of rituals and
  procedures used by a culture to handle death.
• Attitudes about death.
• In Western society, the most common strategy of
  coping with death is avoidance.
• In Western society, the death system encourages
  negative attitudes about death and death anxiety
  fear and apprehension about ones own death.

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• Adults who are more certain about their religious
  beliefs (e.g., both devout Christians and devout
  atheists) have lower death anxiety than those who
  are ambivalent.
• Death anxiety is also less prevalent among those
  who feel they have accomplished more in life and
  have greater life satisfaction.
• Death anxiety also tends to decrease with age.

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Grieving

• Bowlbys 4 stage process
• Numbness dazed and confused
• Yearning longing for things past
• Disorganization and despair accepting the loss
  may induce strong emotions
• Reorganization resume normal routine

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Helping those experiencing grief

• Listens in a supportive manner to individuals
  concerns.
• Helps disaster survivors recognize that, in most
  cases, their emotional reactions are natural,
  normal, and to be expected.
• Assists survivors to reduce additional stress by
  organizing and prioritizing day-today and
  recovery-related tasks.
• Helps individuals to understand and recognize the
  wide range of reactions to trauma, such as
  numbness, frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety,
  sadness, and feelings of helplessness.
• Assists individuals to draw on their own
  strengths and develop healthy coping mechanisms
  that permit them to gradually resume their
  pre-disaster level of functioning.
• Sensitively and caringly helps individuals to
  grieve their losses in their own unique ways.
• Systematically draws upon an array of recovery
  resources for appropriate referrals.