Omega-Journal of Death and Dying最新文献

This study identifies the stigma experienced by 12 bereaved parents 2 and 5 years after losing a child in the Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea. Using thematic analysis, we categorized the experience of stigma into two components based on Corrigan and Kosyluk's social cognitive model of stigma: public stigma and self-stigma, and each was analyzed into three types of stigma: stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination. We identified four additional factors related to stigma mitigation. The potential implications for characterizing the experiences of bereaved parents, particularly those facing stigma, are discussed in light of these findings in the longitudinal perspective.

We aimed to identify the difficulties of the parents of pediatric palliative care patients and how they cope with these problems in this qualitative study in Turkey. This study was carried out with 20 parents by in-depth interviews. Content analysis was used for data analysis. Four themes were identified: The problems in the process of acceptance, the difficulties of being at the hospital, the expectations from the health staff, the coping strategies. The families had difficulties in coping with the end-of-life of their children. Future researches may focus on the effectiveness of family-centered care and the experience of parents with its implementation. The findings suggest that social support resources and coping strategies can play an important role in the acceptance of the child's disease process and maintenance of palliative care effectively.

Different parents grieve differently. However, research directed at understanding the important contextual or individual factors that influence the path each bereaved parent takes is lacking. In this qualitative analysis we seek to understand the array of bereaved parent experiences more completely. By deeply diving into one parent dyad using interpretive phenomenology analysis and situating that story within the conventional content analysis of 13 other bereaved parents of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who died from advanced cancer, we illustrate the roles of religion/spirituality, maintaining a connection, and fulfilling parental roles as elements of grief processing. Clinicians and investigators should consider similar individualized approaches to understanding and supporting the grief experiences of bereaved parents before and after the death of a child.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the way Americans deal with death and dying. Social distancing restrictions prevented or delayed end of life services for families who lost loved ones to COVID-19. Alternatively, some took to the internet to express their grief through online memorialization. Using content analysis, this study analyzes 200 randomly selected online memorials from the COVID Memorial website, a website created to share the stories of those lost to COVID-19 on social media. Our findings offer insight into memorial author demographics, how memorial authors framed and understood death due to COVID-19, and the COVID-19 pandemic through online memorialization. Two major themes emerged during data analysis, "references to COVID-19 death" and "COVID-specific directives to readers." The  former, details how memorial authors framed and understood the death of a loved one to COVID-19. The latter details "advice" or "directives" authors gave to readers about social distancing guidelines and other guidelines meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) is the most widely used instrument to measure complicated grief (CG), but its psychometric properties have hardly been examined in relatives of those who died by violent means. The objective of this study was to obtain evidence of validity of the ICG in a relatives of those who died due to terrorist attacks in Spain. The factorial structure, internal consistency, and relationship with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress were analyzed in a Spanish sample of 211 relatives of people who died in terrorist attacks. The ICG presented a one-factor structure that supports the validity of its total score. This score showed excellent internal consistency indices (alpha = .927; omega = .932) and adequate correlation indices with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (r = .71, .63 and .76, respectively). The ICG provides reliable and valid measures of CG in adults who have lost a family member due to violent death.

Patients receiving palliative care often express a desire to die. Forms and backgrounds of these expressions can be diverse. To contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon, we analyzed patients' desire to die expressions reported by palliative care providers participating in 11 communication trainings on desire to die. The 102 participants were asked to reproduce related patients' statements from their everyday practice. The 165 reported statements could be assigned to the four topics: "Putting an end to life by …," "Social death," "Death images," as well as "Specific and unspecific references to life, death and dying." Across these topics, phrasing differs particularly regarding sentence type (interrogative, declarative, propositional, exclamatory), explicitness and (the way of) referencing others (e.g. attribution of power). The compilation of statements reflects a chorus of expressions, which the palliative care providers might hear throughout their professional career as well as during a patient's process(ing) of disease.

We studied levels of awareness of impending death in older patients and their family caregivers. Using a mixed methods approach, we interviewed 70 family caregivers in Israel. Of the caregivers, 64% reported having been aware of the impending death, 33% were unaware, and 3% uncertain. Caregivers reported their perception that 36% of patients were aware, 27% unaware, and for 37% they were uncertain about the patient's awareness. Mechanisms that increased caregivers' awareness were specific diagnosis, significant deterioration in health, preparation by a health professional, or patient preparations for death. This study clarifies processes which aid awareness, and the relationship between awareness and actual preparation for dying.

The Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) was developed in English-speaking cultures with the aim of measuring attitudes towards death. This measure consists of 32 items, grouped into five factors (Fear of Death, Avoidance of Death, Neutral Acceptance, Approach Acceptance, and Escape Acceptance). The DAP-R was translated and adapted to Spanish (DAP-RSp), and the psychometric properties were analyzed accross a general sample. The face validity was evaluated by 20 experts in palliative care. N = 417 (X = 39.06 years) took part in the validation. DAP-RSp showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.67 for Neutral Acceptance to 0.95 for Escape a Acceptance, and 0.88 for the total), a multitrait scaling analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis reproduced the five dimensions of the original scale. The Spanish version of the DAP-R can be used as a valid scale to assess attitudes towards death in Spanish speaking population.

This study aimed to shed light on the initial-stage bereavement experiences of an individual bereaved by suicide, at three months from the loss of his spouse to suicide. A semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted with the individual, a man in his thirties. The data were analyzed using qualitative assimilation analysis, based on the Assimilation Model and the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES). The APES ratings of the interview revealed that the individual's bereavement was associated with the earlier stages of APES (all scoring under 3.5). In addition, the swift and frequent fluctuations in the APES ratings gave indications that the bereavement was unstable and complicated. It is suggested that mental health professionals could use APES to evaluate suicide bereavement and take note of the APES evaluations in clinical interventions.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-care agency and death anxiety among elderly individuals. The study sample consisted of 163 elderly individuals who applied to the internal medicine and chest diseases outpatient clinic of a university hospital. Death anxiety (DAS) and Self-care agency (SCAS) scales were used for data collection. The mean DAS score of the participants was found 6.76 ± 3.25 and low. The mean SCAS scores was 94.35 ± 16.37 and moderate. A positive very weak correlation was found between self-care agency and death anxiety (p = 0.044, r = 0.158). Elderly individuals without regular income had higher levels of death anxiety compared to those with regular income (p < 0.05). A significant difference was found in death anxiety levels with respect to the sex and marital status (p < 0.05). The low-level death anxiety on elderly individuals may have a positive effect on maintaining their self-care agency. Nurses should engage in training activities and interventions to increase the levels of self-care agency and determine the death anxiety among elderly individuals.