The purpose of grief support groups are analyzed using the intervention wheel, which evaluate the grief support groups as a tool in improving the mental health of the University of Saskatchewan population. There are three elements that produce the intervention wheel: first, population based, second, it includes three levels of practice – community, system, and individual, and third the model identifies 17 public health interventions (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, 2004). Interventions are actions public health nurses use to improve the health of the population (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, 2004). Implementation of a grief support groups will improve the mental health of a select group of individuals in the university …show more content…
Nurses participate in this intervention by addressing health concerns and supporting individuals and groups of students at the University of Saskatchewan campus (Schaffer, Anderson, and Rising, 2015). Grief support groups as an intervention falls in the realm of counseling, where there is an establishment of an interpersonal relationship with a community, a system, and family or individual to increase or enhance their capacity for self care and coping (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, 2004). Counseling can engage a community, a system, and family or individuals that are suffering from grief, and through supports and therapy the needs of the students are addressed on an emotional level (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, …show more content…
Secondary prevention detects and treats problems in the early stages. It keeps problems, such as grief, from causing long-term effects; where early grief can lead to complicated grief, anxiety disorders, depression, mood disorders, and maybe even suicide if left unaddressed (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, 2004). A grief support group can identify risks or hazards and modifies, removes, or treats problems before they become more serious (Keller, Strohschein, Hoagber, & Schaffer, 2004). Grief support groups would act as a secondary intervention and a support group would be implemented after the problem has occured, such as a great loss in one’s life, but before signs and symptoms appear, such as depression or anxiety (uOttawa, 2015). Grief is a natural reaction to the loss of a person, but checks and balances need to be in place to prevent grief from becoming pathological, a mental illness, and completely
Sakinofsky, I. (2007). The Aftermath of Suicide: Managing Survivors' Bereavement. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 52129S-136S.
The book, A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, (1961), was written from his journal he kept after the death Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman in 1960. Lewis was a bachelor for almost 58 years before he married Joy Davidman Greshman in March of 1959. His wife had been diagnosed with cancer before he met her, however, they fell in love and spent their short time together before cancer took her life in 1960. A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis’s chronicles of his personal observations and struggles that Lewis went through with the loss of his beloved wife. Below are some questions for added discussion and thought about the book.
In my case study, I will be talking about a personal experience with a family I know very well. I will not be using their actual names; I’ll be using these names instead: the daughter, Cheyenne, the father, Jim, and the mother Lucy.
By attending these sessions, I hoped to gain a better understating of support groups and enhance my ability to effectively lead groups. Beyond doubt, both of my objectives were met and so much more. From the onset, I learned that it is important for a group leader to encourage and support the group members. Many of the members who attended the Anchor Club wanted to be loved, understood and not judged. Most importantly, they were striving to maintain their sobriety. As a group leader encouragement and support would help members deal with anxiety and share their feeling openly (Jacobs, Schimmel, Masson, & Harvill, 2016, p.
To locate a grieving support group, connect with local hospitals, hospices, community centers, funeral homes, and counseling centers (Smith, 2014). The second positive coping method is taking care of one’s needs. The burden of losing a loved one can devastate both body and mind. Caring for one’s physical and emotional needs, will make the make the heavy weight of bereavement, a lighter load. One important step in taking care of one’s self is to battle fatigue and hardship with exercising daily, and eating healthy.
Jackson, K. (2013). Understanding traumatic grief - Mass violence, shattered lives. Social Work Today, 13(3). May/June, 12. Retrieved from http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p12.shtml
Back in November I wrote about how the field is shifting it’s thinking on complicated grief and some of the controversy surrounding the changes to grief as an exclusionary criteria for depression. I still agree that the change was a step in the right direction and with that in mind, we’re going to look at how CBT can be useful in addressing avoidance behaviors within the context of complicated grief.
Considering that bereavement is something faced by all people regardless of culture, gender, or age there are mounds of research that has been conducted on this topic. This research includes typical and atypical symptoms, effective diagnosis, and the treatment of bereavement. However, the most important entity to consider is the individual bereaving. An article by Diala et al. reports research findings that indicate that African Americans are less likely to obtain mental health services than Caucasians. Furthermore, if African American individuals do seek services they are more likely to report negative attitudes related to their experience and less likely to return for mental health services if their illness persists (Diala, et al., 2000). One suggestion made for these variations is how the client perceives the services being provided and the majority of this perception is based on the clinician’s response to the grieving individual.
Margaret Stroebe, Henk Schut and Wolfgang Stroebe are the authors of the first article titled “Health outcomes of bereavement”. Elsevier limited published it in 2007 for The Lancet, volume 370, issue 9603, and page 1960-1973. The purpose of the study is to evaluate bereavement, physical and mental health as it pertains to grief and the excess risk to mortality. Establishing correlations may help researchers identify bereaved related mental health problems by acknowledging similar behaviors and emotions in order to validate...
The four tasks are: “the need to grieve, to find support, to deal with practical issues, and to come to an acceptance that a loss has occurred (Hall, 2008, p. 200). The first task to grieve is just accepting that loss, or change has occurred, (Hall, 2008). Seems simple enough, but it is complex and can be mixed with anger, denial, numbness, and shock (Hall, 2008). These types of feelings are normal, and when a person allows their self to grieve they may for a while feel depressed, lonely, sleep disturbances, etc., (Hall, 2008). The next task to find support is often provided by family, but can also be provided by friends, and community (Hall, 2008). When families have support, it makes the first and third task easier to accomplish (Hall, 2008). Without support, it takes families longer to heal than normal because they may feel isolated (Hall,
The project scope looks specifically at the RTS annual National Bereavement Education conference hosted at its home location in LaCrosse,
The theory of chronic sorrow is not a new one. It was introduced in the early sixties as a way of explaining the ongoing waves of grief experienced by parents of children with severe mental disabilities (Eakes, Burke, & Hainsworth, 1998). Since this early conceptualization, the theory has evolved significantly and has demonstrated important applications to nursing practice; by understanding how chronic sorrow affects patients, nurses are better equipped to guide them through this distinct and unique coping mechanism and ensure that they do not engage in pathological grief states such as depression (Gordon, 2009). In order to provide effective support to patients experiencing chronic sorrow, it is crucial for nurses to understand not only the nature of chronic sorrow, but also the situations that preclude it and how to differentiate it from other commonly confounded but distinct loss responses and pathologies (Casale, 2009).
Ruth presented aspects of “An education model for explaining hospice services” (Welk, 1991). She discussed the four dimensions of support for the patient and family within hospice care, which are physical, emotional/psychological, social, and spiritual and gave examples of how the various dimensions of support could occur. She explained the purpose of hospice is to allow the patient to live as full as possible and comfortably until the end of life. She explained hospices services takes the “…conflict out of social situations, helps to subside the fear emotionally, attempts to remove as much pain physically and addresses decreasing despair spiritually thus easing the suffering” (Welk, 1991, p. 16) of the patient and
Bereaved Parents go through grief, but extremely more intense than the average individual who has lost a loved one. Grief is different for every individual depending on the loss, and person they lost. Regarding implications and policy for grief, my finding point to the need of education around this topic for schools, social workers, hospitals and therapists. More professional’s services should be provided for not just individuals going through grief, but individuals who have lost a child or who have prolonged grief. Support groups and specialize grief interventions should be implanted into communities for families who are having a difficulty adapting to the death of their child. The high rates of marital problems, health related problems and depression should also be addressed. There should be some therapeutic interventions that reach out to bereaved parents
Miers, D., Abbott, D., & Springer, P. R. (2012). A phenomenological study of family needs following the suicide of a teenager. Death Studies, 36(2), 118-133. Retrieved from