Concept Analysis of Grief in the Families of Terminally ill Patients

Concept Analysis of Grief in the Families of Terminally ill Patients

Introduction

Patients that are suffering from serious illness and sickness along with their care givers are deeply affected with grief and loss. When a patient is diagnosed with a fatal illness a series of emotional depressions continue until the end of the patient's life. In during this difficult time along with the illness the patient and the caregivers might develop different types of emotional distress. The common type of emotional distress the patient and caregivers might face is depression, demoralization and severe grief situations. The proper study of the disorders is important in order to clearly diagnose the problems and in order to treat the grieved patients.

Discussion

The bereavement and grief assessment care starts at the first contact between the patient and the family members along with the palliative and hospital care team. Studies have shown that the complicated grief is related to the physical and psychological morbidity which includes the increase suicidal ideation and the whole reduced quality of life. Thus, knowing the risk for the development of complicated grief should be the main focus of the health care team.

Educating patients and families about the nature of grief and its manifestations in the context of palliative and end-of-life care should be approached early. Complicated grief treatment involved imaginable exposure focusing on processing traumatic symptoms related to the death, promoting a sense of connection with the deceased loved one and restoration from the grief. (Strada, 2009)

Grief Disorder

Grief happens when a person's connections with a loved one are being damaged due to some reason. This is mostly the last time of a person's life and he/she is close to death and it is the ultimate separation that is near. The expression of grief is a normal condition of loss. Grief is a multidimensional route and is usually varied and complex which involves various distress and depress related symptoms that have a serious impact on the person's level of functioning.

Grief disorder: Case study

In the studies of the long going grief disorder we observe the case of a women and her grief and bereavement process when her husband who was only 22 years old died of lymphoma and she became a young widow and the single parent of her two daughters. She was faced by horror, devastation and sudden shock. She was not prepared for the death and that made her extremely alone. She was feeling that God had destroyed her family and that God had abandoned her husband. So in turn she intentionally strides to abandon her belief from God. The death caused her to feel raged, sinful and hatred in response to the sadness desperation and loneliness that she had.

She said that even she was not in an active grief; she was still continuing to struggle from the consequences of the grief known as complicated grief. She also had developed fears, anxiety about her husband's injury and the sudden ...