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Issue Description
BRAND NEW LOOK!
Everyone will experience a bereavement at some point, yet the death of a loved one is always a shock, even after a long illness. This book takes a sensitive look at the issues surrounding grief and loss, covering the feelings experienced after a bereavement, healthy and unhealthy ways to grieve, young people and mourning, funerals and memorials and practical matters which need to be dealt with following a death.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- Bereavement is our experience of grief when someone we care about has died. It isn’t just one feeling but a range of different emotions. We feel them most in the months – often up to two years, sometimes longer – after the death. (page 1)
- Grieving is a natural process that can take place after any kind of loss. Dealing with loss can be very distressing but it is normal – albeit very difficult and painful – to experience very strong reactions. Grief is not an illness. Your feelings are something you experience and not symptoms that have to be treated. (page 3)
- Carers often feel grief even though the person they’re caring for is still alive. This could happen if the person being cared for has a life-limiting condition (a condition that has no reasonable hope of a cure), or their personality has been affected by their illness. (page 6)
- New research, commissioned by the Dying Matters Coalition, shows that less than a third (29%) of people have discussed their wishes around dying. (page 8)
- Bereavement in children and young people is more frequent than many people think. 78% of 11- to 16-year-olds in one survey said that they had been bereaved of a close relative or friend. (page 12)
- Complicated bereavement (also known as complicated mourning, complicated grief, prolonged grief) is the concept used when a bereaved person appears to be ‘stuck’ in their grief process or their grief has become a way of life. (page 16)
- Around one child in 29 has been bereaved of a parent or sibling. Around on in 16 has been bereaved of a close friend. (page 18)
- There are currently just over 14 million registered organ donors in the UK (23% of the population) who have said they want to help others live after their death by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register. (page 28)
- Death of a partner is mainly the experience of older women. One in five women bereaved under pension age, and one in ten men, have dependent children. (page 33)
- Older women faced increased risk of persistent or recurrent poverty for two or three years after the death of their partner. (page 33)
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Bereavement and Loss
Bereavement: key facts, Bereavement – what you can do to help yourself, Coping with your grief, Helping the bereaved, Grief before death, A stiff upper lip is no longer a badge of honour, Major new survey reveals people’s reluctance to discuss own death.
Chapter 2 Grief and Young People
After someone dies, Bereavement and young people, Facts and figures on child bereavement, Bereaved children, We need to talk about death, Potential indicators of complicated bereavement, Bereaved children more likely to have faced other difficult events in childhood, Issues for bereaved children and young people, Bereaved parents, ‘Yes, you can survive the death of a child'.
Chapter 3 Handling the Formalities
What can I do to plan for my death?, Why make a will?, Organ donation, Practical things you may need to do after a death, Dealing with financial companies and organisations after someone dies, Financial implications of death of a partner, Religious traditions and beliefs, Living funerals, Humanist funerals and memorials, The comfort of memorial websites.
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: Bereavement and Grief - Volume 192
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: ISBN: 978 1 86168 549 0
