Discussion Prompt 1

Coping With Death

In your opinion, is denying one’s own impending death a beneficial way of coping? How might it impact development positively and negatively? Provide examples of practices that indicate death acceptance and death avoidance. Support your reasoning with information from the text and other course materials.

Discussion Prompt 2

Coping With Loss

Some people believe that in modern societies, unlike traditional communities, we do not allow enough time and social support for the bereaved to process death and mourn loss. Do you agree or disagree? How do childhood experiences and cultural and social rituals impact the bereavement process? Next, read the following blog post “Supporting Grieving Families: Tips for RNs and Others on the Front Line.” Why do you think healthcare providers receive so little training in grief response? Do you think grief support is worthwhile to include as a major part of healthcare training? Explain.

Discussion 1 comment 1

In my opinion, denial of one’s death can have both positive and negative affects on older adults. A positive reason why denial can be a good way to approach death is because it can be used to avoid the destructive impact of shock by delaying the necessity of dealing with one’s death (Santrock, 2017). When someone is in denial about their death it can protect the individual from having to cope with intense feelings of anger and hurt. Although, denial can have a negative impact on someone who is coping with death. With denial they might think it is not necessary to receive treatment (especially life-saving treatment) when they need it (Santrock, 2017). When someone is in denial they might put off going to get check-ups which might be necessary to keep them alive. That is why denial can be both good, and bad, depending on how the individual acts when they are in denial. Some effects of death can be that they make the person dying more spiritual. In a study it showed that many people who had advance congestive heart failure got more spiritual as they got closer to death (Santrock, 2017). Acceptance is when the dying person develops a sense of peace, an acceptance in his fate, and a desire to be left alone. Death avoidance is when they are doing anything to distract themselves of the feelings they have to face, and deny and isolate theirselves.

Santrock, J. W. (2017).Life Span Development.New York: McGraw Hill Education.

Discussion 2 comment 1

I do agree that in modern society we do not allow enough time and social support for people to process death and mourn a loss. In today’s society we are given a few days to a week to mourn the death of a close relative and then we are forced to go back into work or school if we don’t want to miss out on getting paid or being dropped from a class. Different cultures affect the bereavement process differently, for example in Bali the the bereaved are encouraged to laugh and be joyful (Santrock, 2017). In different cultures they believe they should still keep contact with the spirit of the dead. In western cultures we just have a funeral where we say goodbye to our loved one once and for-all and kind of forget about them, and don’t believe that we need to continue bonds with the deceased. All cultures have different grieving practices, and none is greater than the other, but help them in different ways. I think that health care providers aren’t really taught in grief response because it is something hard to teach. There is no right answer and it will vary with different cases. Some people grieve in different ways, and have different outlooks regarding death so it hard to teach one precise answer. It is something that will be learned through experience and needs to come from a genuine place, while still being proffesional.

Santrock, J. W. (2017).Life Span Development.New York: McGraw Hill Education.

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