In the Face of Death: Professionals Who Care for the Dying and the Bereaved (Springer Series on Death and Suicide)

"Danai Papadatou [presents] an approach of Relational Care, care based on an understanding of relationships, that should be essential reading .[S]he writes in an engaging and non-technical language, and manages to convey complex ideas in a manner that is accessible to all." --Colin Murray Parkes, OBE, MD, FRCPsych President, Cruse: Bereavement Care (From the Foreword) "This is a fascinating book, applying important theoretical models in order to describe and speculate about how professionals manage to work in an environment where suffering and grief are constantly present. This is an important and substantial addition to the mostly self-help literature about self-care for caregivers." --Doody's In the Face of Death explores the experiences of health care professionals who care for the seriously ill, the dying, and the bereaved. In this book, Danai Papadatou offers a practical approach to caregiving, as well as a breadth and depth of insight into both the patient's and the caregiver's responses to death. The author discusses the issues and challenges health care professionals face when treating dying and bereaved patients. Topics include: compassion fatigue, the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth, suffering in the workplace, team functioning in death situations, and team resilience. The Main themes are: The Caring Relationship focuses on the relationship between the care provider and the person who is dying or grieving, and proposes a new, relationship-based model of care The Care Provider in Death Situations addresses the health professional's personal responses to death, using a model that illustrates the grieving process of the health professional The Team in the Face of Death provides recommendations for effective, interdisciplinary care services that support dying or bereaved patients as well as the health care provider Contents......Page 8 Foreword......Page 12 Preface......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 20 SECTION I: THE CARING RELATIONSHIP......Page 22 1 Society, Science, and Death......Page 24 The Medical Model of Care......Page 26 The Biopsychosocial and Holistic Model of Care......Page 27 The Relationship-Centered Approach to Care......Page 30 2 A Relationship of Care......Page 42 Partners in Care......Page 43 The Attachment Bond......Page 45 Request for Services in Death Situations......Page 46 The Person's Attachment Behaviors......Page 49 The Professional's Caregiving Behaviors......Page 53 Bond Affirmation Through Belonging......Page 56 3 Distinct Features of the Helping Relationship......Page 60 Exposure to Death and Mortality Awareness......Page 61 Inevitability of Suffering Versus Potential for Growth......Page 68 Experience of an Altered Sense of Time......Page 71 Involvement in the Caregiving Relationship......Page 75 The Myth......Page 82 From Myth to Reality: Assuming a Companioning Role......Page 88 Working in Private Practice......Page 126 When the Care Provider Is Seriously Ill or Dying......Page 129 The End of Accompaniment......Page 131 SECTION II: THE CARE PROVIDER IN DEATH SITUATIONS......Page 134 5 The Wounded Healer......Page 136 From Myth to Reality: The Suffering of the Care Provider......Page 138 Aspects of Care Providers' Suffering......Page 141 Grief: A Healthy Response to Death Situations......Page 149 6 A Model for Professionals' Grieving Process......Page 152 Proposition 1: Professionals Who Experience the Death of a Person as a Personal Loss Are Likely to Grieve......Page 155 Proposition 2: Grieving Involves a Fluctuation Between Experiencing and Avoiding Loss and Grief......Page 160 Proposition 3: Through Grieving, Meanings Are Attributed to Death, Dying, and Caregiving......Page 167 Proposition 4: Personal Meanings Are Affected by Meanings That Are Shared by Co-workers, and Vice Versa......Page 176 Proposition 5: Grief Overload and Grief Complications Occur When There Is No Fluctuation Between Experiencing and Avoiding Loss and Grief......Page 180 Proposition 6: Grief Offers Opportunities for Personal Growth......Page 184 Proposition 7: The Professional's Grieving Process is Affected by Several Interacting Variables......Page 188 7 The Rewards of Caregiving......Page 196 Obstacles to Rewarding Experiences......Page 199 Conditions That Promote Rewarding Experiences......Page 200 The Wisdom of the Wounded Healer......Page 207 SECTION III: THE TEAM IN THE FACE OF DEATH......Page 210 8 Caregiving Organizations and Death......Page 212 Suffering in the Workplace......Page 214 The Organization's Myths and Ideals......Page 217 The Organization's Primary Tasks and Mode of Functioning......Page 219 9 Team Functioning in Death Situations......Page 224 Principle 1: Team Functioning Is Affected by the Organization's Culture......Page 227 Principle 2: Team Rules Determine How Professionals Should Care for Dying and Bereaved People and Cope With Suffering......Page 230 Principle 3: There Are No Functional or Dysfunctional Teams—Only Teams That Use Functional and Dysfunctional Patterns to Cope With Loss, Death, and Suffering......Page 238 Principle 4: The Chronic Use of Dysfunctional Patterns Renders a Team Vulnerable to Various Types of Disorganization......Page 251 Principle 5: Crises Are Inevitable; They Hold the Potential for Team Disorganization as Well as Team Growth......Page 257 Principle 6: All Teams Have the Potential to Function With Competence......Page 263 Principle 7: Interprofessional Collaboration Is an Unfolding Process That Is Reflective of a Team's Development and Growth......Page 277 Principle 8: Resilience Is Enhanced by the Team's Ability to Cope Effectively With Suffering, and to Creatively Use Its Resources to Foster Change and Growth......Page 281 10 The Good-Enough Team......Page 290 Team Narratives of Traumas and Achievements......Page 292 Leaders in Good-Enough Teams......Page 296 Supervisors and Consultants......Page 299 Toward a Community of Support......Page 302 11 The Challenges of Educating Health Care Professionals......Page 306 Challenge 1: Develop a Philosophy of Teaching That Promotes Relational Learning and Reflective Practice......Page 308 Challenge 2: Develop Curricula That Include Goals, Learning Objectives, and Methods of Teaching That Focus on Relationships With the Dying, the Bereaved, and Co-Workers......Page 309 Challenge 3: Integrate Current Knowledge Into Educational Programs and Supervised Clinical Applications......Page 311 Challenge 4: Evaluate Training Outcomes as Well as the Context and Process by Which Learning Occurs......Page 312 Challenge 5: Integrate Formal and Informal Learning Activities Into the Work Context......Page 314 Epilogue......Page 318 Appendix: Brief Description of Bowlby's Theory on Attachment......Page 322 References......Page 326 B......Page 342 C......Page 343 D......Page 344 G......Page 345 I......Page 346 M......Page 347 P......Page 348 R......Page 349 T......Page 350 W......Page 351 'Occasionally I read a book and say to myself that this is a book that I wished I had written. This is such a book! It is a delightful, practical, interesting, and inspiring book! Danai has written a soon-to-be classic in the field! Her writing is excellent! Her use of theories, concepts, history, and models are wonderful!'--Illness, Crisis and Loss'Danai PapadatouÖ[presents] an approach of Relational Care, care based on an understanding of relationships, that should be essential readingÖ.[S]he writes in an engaging and non-technical language, and manages to convey complex ideas in a manner that is accessible to all.'--Colin Murray Parkes, OBE, MD, FRCPsychPresident, Cruse: Bereavement Care(From the Foreword)ì[A] wonderful contribution to the literature on caregiving and her well thought out ideas about relational caregiving are on the cutting edge. Congratulations.î -- Lynne Ann DeSpelderCoAuthor, The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 8th edition'This is no ordinary academic textbook. It is nothing short of a masterpiece in which Papadatou provides the field of death, dying and bereavement with invaluable and constructive insights into the world of caring for the dying and bereaved.'--Grief Matters'This is a fascinating book, applying important theoretical modelsÖin order to describe and speculate about how professionals manage to work in an environment where suffering and grief are constantly present. This is an important and substantial addition to the mostly self-help literature about self-care for caregivers.'--Doody's Medical Reviews In the Face of Death explores the experiences of health care professionals who care for the seriously ill, the dying, and the bereaved. In this book, Danai Papadatou offers a practical approach to caregiving, as well as a breadth and depth of insight into both the patient's and the caregiver's responses to death. The author discusses the issues and challenges health care professionals face when treating dying and bereaved patients. Topics include: compassion fatigue, the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth, suffering in the workplace, team functioning in death situations, and team resilience. The main themes are:The Caring Relationship focuses on the relationship between the care provider and the person who is dying or grieving, and proposes a new, relationship-based model of care The Care Provider in Death Situations addresses the health professional's personal responses to death, using a model that illustrates the grieving process of the health professionalThe Team in the Face of Death provides recommendations for effective, interdisciplinary care services that support dying or bereaved patients as well as the health care provider

"Danai Papadatou [presents] an approach of Relational Care, care based on an understanding of relationships, that should be essential reading .[S]he writes in an engaging and non-technical language, and manages to convey complex ideas in a manner that is accessible to all."

--Colin Murray Parkes, OBE, MD, FRCPsych

President, Cruse: Bereavement Care

(From the Foreword)

"[A] wonderful contribution to the literature on caregiving and her well thought out ideas about relational caregiving are on the cutting edge. Congratulations."

-- Lynne Ann DeSpelder

CoAuthor, The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 8th edition

"This is no ordinary academic textbook. It is nothing short of a masterpiece in which Papadatou provides the field of death, dying and bereavement with invaluable and constructive insights into the world of caring for the dying and bereaved."--Grief Matters

"This is a fascinating book, applying important theoretical models in order to describe and speculate about how professionals manage to work in an environment where suffering and grief are constantly present. This is an important and substantial addition to the mostly self-help literature about self-care for caregivers."--Doody's Medical Reviews

In the Face of Death explores the experiences of health care professionals who care for the seriously ill, the dying, and the bereaved. In this book, Danai Papadatou offers a practical approach to caregiving, as well as a breadth and depth of insight into both the patient's and the caregiver's responses to death.

The author discusses the issues and challenges health care professionals face when treating dying and bereaved patients. Topics include: compassion fatigue, the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth, suffering in the workplace, team functioning in death situations, and team resilience.

The main themes are:

• The Caring Relationship focuses on the relationship between the care provider and the person who is dying or grieving, and proposes a new, relationship-based model of care
• The Care Provider in Death Situations addresses the health professional's personal responses to death, using a model that illustrates the grieving process of the health professional
• The Team in the Face of Death provides recommendations for effective, interdisciplinary care services that support dying or bereaved patients as well as the health care provider
  

Occasionally I read a book and say to myself that this is a book that I wished I had written. This is such a book! It is a delightful, practical, interesting, and inspiring book! Danai has written a soon-to-be classic in the field! Her writing is excellent! Her use of theories, concepts, history, and models are wonderful!"-- Illness, Crisis and Loss Danai Papadatou[presents] an approach of Relational Care, care based on an understanding of relationships, that should be essential reading.[S]he writes in an engaging and non-technical language, and manages to convey complex ideas in a manner that is accessible to all. -- Colin Murray Parkes, OBE, MD, FRCPsych President, Bereavement Care (From the Foreword) "[A] wonderful contribution to the literature on caregiving and her well thought out ideas about relational caregiving are on the cutting edge. Congratulations." -- Lynne Ann DeSpelder CoAuthor, The Last Encountering Death and Dying, 8th edition This is no ordinary academic textbook. It is nothing short of a masterpiece in which Papadatou provides the field of death, dying and bereavement with invaluable and constructive insights into the world of caring for the dying and bereaved."-- Grief Matters This is a fascinating book, applying important theoretical modelsin order to describe and speculate about how professionals manage to work in an environment where suffering and grief are constantly present. This is an important and substantial addition to the mostly self-help literature about self-care for caregivers."-- Doody's Medical Reviews In the Face of Death explores the experiences of health care professionals who care for the seriously ill, the dying, and the bereaved. In this book, Danai Papadatou offers a practical approach to caregiving, as well as a breadth and depth of insight into both the patient's and the caregiver's responses to death. The author discusses the issues and challenges health care professionals face when treating dying and bereaved patients. Topics compassion fatigue, the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth, suffering in the workplace, team functioning in death situations, and team resilience. The main themes Describes and analyzes the impact that the caregiving process has upon health care professionals, teams, and institutions which provide services to people who are dying and bereaved. This book uses case examples from clinical practice as well as verbatim accounts of nurses and physicians to illustrate the concepts presented.