This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Weeber, S. C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Death, Grief, and the Home Health Worker: A Systems Approach

McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana

As the burden of long-term care shifts from nursing homes to home-based care, home health workers are increasingly likely to serve an older clientele susceptible to chronic disease and death. A significant occupational stressor in such cases is a lack of knowledge about what constitutes professionally appropriate interaction with dying patients and their families. Utilizing social systems theory and findings from the sociology of death and dying, this article provides information helpful to workers dealing with such cases. There is discussion of the stages of grief for the dying patient and for survivors, the difference between normal and abnormal grief, how to lessen the symptoms of grief, the art of condolence, and the special topic of children and grief. The article concludes with six recommended strategies for workers to cope with the problems of death, dying, and grief within the real-life social system in which they work and live.

Key Words: death • dying • grief • home health workers • sociology

Home Health Care Management & Practice, Vol. 17, No. 5, 358-364 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1084822305275498


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?