C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION C.O.E. Funeral Division All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. Page 1 of 80 Click Here To Take Test Now (Complete the Reading Material first then click on the Take Test Now Button to start the test. Test is at the bottom of this page) 5 HR. BEREAVEMENT AFTERCARE: ISSUES FOR THE CLIEN T AND THE DEATH CARE PROFESSIO NAL C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, 1 legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION C.O.E. Funeral Division All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. Page 2 of 80 COURSE TABLE OF CONTENTS: Course Sections Segment 1: Rationale for a Multidisciplinary Support System Segment 2: Counseling Techniques for Helping the Bereaved Segment 3: Models of Bereavement Aftercare Segment 4: Contemporary Issues Influencing Bereavement Aftercare Segment 5: Issues for the Death Care Professional SEGMENT 1: RATIONALE FOR A MULTIDISCIPLINARY SUPPORT SYSTEM SEGMENT OUTLINE: i. Narrative Summary ii. Need for Aftercare a. Sociological Factors b. Psychological Factors iii. Purpose of Aftercare a. Requirements of a Bereavement Program b. Aftercare Opportunities c. Ancillary Resources iv. Role of Death Care Professionals a. Medical Personnel b. Clergy c. Mental Health Professionals d. Hospice e. Funeral Service Providers v. Issues in Aftercare a. Death Education b. Fragmentation versus Coordination C.O.E.vi. Summary CONTINUING EDUCATION All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, 2 legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION C.O.E. Funeral Division All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. Page 3 of 80 SEGMENT OBJECTIVES: Upon the completion of this segment of the course you will be able to: 1. Identify social and psychological factors that demonstrate the need for aftercare. 2. Develop an understanding of the purpose of Bereavement Programs, Aftercare Opportunities, and ancillary resources 3. Breakdown general categories which define the role of death care professionals. 4. Discuss and analyze the use of self-help and support groups, hospice programs, and funeral home grief aftercare programs. 5. Identify issues associated with effective aftercare. NARRATIVE SUMMARY It's always a challenge to know how to best help your client families in the days, weeks, and months after the loss of their loved one. Most people in this country have access to a 911 phone number for emergencies, as well as opportunities to learn first aid and CPR. Yet how convenient or widely available are classes to deal with the grief and loss experienced by the roughly eight million (through death alone) newly bereaved members of our society each year? It seems as if we have professionals trained and equipped to deal with everything: marriage counselors, substance abuse, childhood development, financial advisers: except the one area that touches us all: death and dying. There appears to be no general agreement on whose job this is. The concepts of aftercare and grief counseling are relatively new and have become specialized fields of attention only in the past fifteen to twenty years as understanding and recognition of "normal" grief processes have been studied and written about. This section will attempt to establish a framework for examining the broad range of aftercare delivery mechanisms and the roles of various professionals within those systems. Specifically, these final parts of the course will address models of bereavement aftercare, present counseling techniques for helping the bereaved, discuss the unique, contemporary issues facing death care professionals in the area of aftercare, and recommend coping strategies to reduce stress and prevent burnout among those who regularly deal with grieving people. This section of the course serves as an overview introducing concepts and constructs that are discussed in more detail later. In addition, it offers suggested actions that professionals may take who wish to improve the C.O.E.death education and bereavementCONTINUING aftercare in their communities. EDUCATION All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, 3 legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION C.O.E. Funeral Division All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. Page 4 of 80 NEED FOR AFTERCARE Dictionary definitions of "aftercare" offer a medical model, explaining the term as the treatment of a convalescent patient, such as would be utilized following surgery. While at first glance this implies the existence of an abnormal or pathological condition, upon reflection there is a valid metaphor: something has been "cut out” of a griever’s life, and the griever most certainly does require special handling. Where the metaphor stops, of course, would be in the suggestion that grief itself is abnormal or pathological. In the death and dying profession, “aftercare” is defined as any post death or post funeral program of survivor rehabilitation designed to help the individual through the grief process and successfully readjust to his or her environment. Although the term “rehabilitation” continues to imply pathology, its purest meaning involves restoring or learning new habits that promote a useful and healthful life. Indeed, as we will see, the best aftercare programs utilize the research that has occurred over the last few decades and approach the common problems bereaved people face with a systematic appreciation of the difficult emotional struggles they face. SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS The need for grief aftercare is peculiar to twentieth-century Western culture. In preindustrial societies, higher death rates meant that many people died at what we would consider relatively young ages, interrupting their role in society. Their deaths took place within the circle of the family and the community, and Blauner (1966) suggests that death was viewed as a social process with an immediate effect on society. With industrialization, death rates were lowered, resulting in death occurring largely among elderly adults who have completed their societal role. Indeed, Rubin (1990) offers that the impact of those deaths do not affect the society as a whole and are only minor footnotes in the cycle of societal events. But we now live in a postindustrial society, and Morgan (1995) attributes the need for aftercare to the technological advances that have changed our "normal” experiences. Longer life expectancies, higher degrees of mobility and resulting familial separations, plus the "removal” of death to institutions all mean that we have “unlearned” the concept of death as a natural part of the life cycle: Today, at least 75% of persons die in hospitals. The consequence of this is that dying is now seen by fewer people than it previously was. We do not have the mass deaths that once were viewed on C.O.E.streets, and we do not CONTINUING have persons dying at home. EDUCATION All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O. E. Continuing Education. The course provided was prepared by C.O.E. Continuing Education Curriculum Coordinator. It is not meant to provide medical, 4 legal or professional services advice. If necessary, it is recommended that you consult a medical, legal or professional services expert licensed in your state. C.O.E. CONTINUING EDUCATION C.O.E. Funeral Division All Rights Reserved. Materials may not be copied, edited, reproduced, distributed, imitated in any way without written permission from C.O.