Reflective Essay On Loss Theory

Loss Theory

On reflection Mr Young’s case, I could identify that he required support to make sense of his loss, despite his diagnosis of early onset dementia. Mr Young’s long term partner just died during his hospital admission. According to Freud (1971), stress, grief and loss produce a mixture of physical and psychological reasons which are closely related with the social pressure about changes in status. He further stressed that these are often accompanied by financial problems; in this case, Mr Young’s problems was associated to accommodation in addition to losing his companion.

Parkes (1972) carried out a study of twenty-two widows in London, he studied the notion that bereavement suggests that grief is an illness as well as emotional and physiological symptoms cause’s people to go to their doctors for help because they experience physical discomfort and disturbance of function. He went on to say; newly bereaved people are frequently treated as sick by the society. I can quite agree with this statement, in many cultures, a bereaved person is expected to stay at home for a long period, for example, some cultures and religions have official guideline of duration of mourning. For example, a Muslim widow is expected to be in mourning for a period of four months and ten days, during this period, she is expected to stay at home. Although for a

career widow, she is allowed to return to work, but she can only commute to and from work and all other activities will be suspended until completion of official mourning stressed. On the other hand, reaction to death or bereavement is not universal, response to dying is effect by cultural or religion believes. Some religion believes in reincarnation and therefore may not react negatively to dying and may perceive dying as freedom from challenges and hardship of life.

Following death of Miss Morris, Mr Young was moved into a side room away from other patients on the ward allowing him to grief for his loss. Bereavement is not only a situation when people have a feeling of loss, for example, Nicolson (1994) argues that experience of being burgled can also lead to a severe grief reaction, especially if they lose some items which is of great sentimental value. In the case of a person who had a picture of a loved one stolen. The picture may not be valuable, but to the victim it is a significant loss. Loss of partner is also compounded to having to move out of a home Mr Young shared with his long term partner, Marris (1986) stated that it is not only bereavement that can lead to grief, moving away from home and changes in the structure can lead to a grief reaction.

Conclusion.

I feel I have been empowered completing this assignment, as I see myself having to take time to keep comprehensive report or findings of my visits when completing MCA.

(HM Government, 2013). The assessment and outcome enables me to work in partnership with Mr Young and his family bearing in mind power imbalance between social worker and client. I am aware of how frightened hospital environment could be, especially when client feel they are not in control of their destiny and someone else is making or part of decision making in their lives, especially when various professionals are given different feedback or advice to

him.
For many people, it can be devastating to be told that they can no longer return home and this can have a negative impact on their emotional and psychology wellbeing.
The Care Acts, 2014 makes a duty for provision for appointment and use of advocacy for client who lack capacity and unbefriend and (IMCA) has to be involved where there are important decisions have to be made for someone lacking capacity about changes of accommodation, care or treatment, in promoting client’s wellbeing (Department of Health, 2012). As previously discussed, there is a eight weeks waiting time before a case worker is allocated to support client to choose a placement. This is an ongoing challenges for most vulnerable people in our society.
Carrying out MCA within the hospital setting can be challenging, especially within multi agency team. Mental capacity assessments are carried out by professionals for various reasons and this can be confusing to both service users and family. Medical team carry out Mental Capacity assessments for patient who is not able to consent to treatment. However, Mental Capacity Assessment by social workers are often for a life altering change for example resettlement to a nursing home as this was demonstrated with the Westminster Council v Sykes case . Another disadvantage in undertaken MCA in a hospital was time factor, this always cause conflict between Adult Social Services and our Health Colleagues. Although it is mandatory for all professionals to have basic understanding and training on assessment of MCA, however, due to high turn over as well as medical team are constantly on rotation between hospitals. A further research will be required to explore implication of MCA assessment within the hospital setting.