4/23/2012

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. - George Santayana

How has death changed in the past 100 years?

Death occurs later 47 vs. 78 Death takes longer (natural vs. technology) Death often occurs in hospitals (vs. homes) The main causes of death have changed (tuberculosis & smallpox & childbirth vs. cancer) After death (less certainty for some people)

Topic: Death & Dying 4-23-12

Death in Childhood

Question
True or False People in different age groups experience death of a loved one in the same way. A) TRUE B) FALSE

Children have a different perspective of death. Brain development is progressive

More impulsive -- may seem happy one day and morbidly sad the next. They do not get over the death of a parent, nor do they dwell on it. They may take certain explanations literally.

Fatally ill children typically fear abandonment

frequent and caring contact is more important than logic.

Older children turn into more concrete operational thinkers

Specific facts help

Death in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Teenagers have little fear of death (anxiety about death decreases) Adolescents often predict that they will die at an early age Romanticizing death

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Death in Adulthood
When adults become responsible for work and family death is to be avoided or at least postponed. Death anxiety usually increases from ones teens to ones 20s and then gradually decreases. Ages 25 to 60: Terminally ill adults worry about leaving something undone or leaving family membersespecially childrenalone.

Death in Late Adulthood

Death anxiety decreases and hope rises. One sign of mental health among older adults:
acceptance of their own mortality and altruistic concern about those who will live on after them.

Religions and Hope

People who think they might die soon are more likely than others to believe in life after death.

Many older adults accept death

Write wills Reconcile with estranged family

Virtually every world religion provides rites and customs to honor the dead and comfort the living.

Near-Death Experience
An episode in which a person comes close to dying but survives and reports having left his or her body and having moved toward a bright white light while feeling peacefulness and joy. Near-death experiences often include religious elements.

Good death vs. Bad death

Good death
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

peaceful, quick, and painless and that occurs after a long life, in the company of family and friends, and in familiar surroundings. Lacks these six characteristics and is dreaded, particularly by the elderly

Bad death

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Stages of Grief (Death)

Kbler-Ross: Identified emotions experienced by dying people, which she divided into a sequence of five stages: 1. Denial (I am not really dying.) 2. Anger (I blame my doctors, or my family, or God for my death.) 3. Bargaining (I will be good from now on if I can live.) 4. Depression (I dont care about anything; nothing matters anymore.) 5. Acceptance (I accept my death as part of life. NEW NORMAL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mh8SX_sXs&feature=r esults_video&playnext=1&list=PL1D3BEC057C4B691C Homer

True or False
People always go through the stages of grief in order. A) True B) False

Honest Conversation
Most dying people want to spend time with loved ones and to talk honestly with medical and religious professionals. It is unethical to withhold information if the patient asks for it although some people do not want the whole truth. Hospital personnel need to respond to each dying person as an individual, not merely as someone who must understand that death is near.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=H6yvJ_MWnJ Kubler-Ross