Grief and Bereavement Studies

Supporting Significant Life
Events

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Impact of significant life event on individuals.................................................................1
1.2 The possible group response to significant life events.....................................................3
1.3 Impacts on other people in social and health care............................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Effectiveness of the organisational policies and procedures in supporting individuals
suffering from significant life events.....................................................................................5
2.2 Role of other people in the social network that provide support to people suffering from
significant life events..............................................................................................................6
2.3 Suitability of the external support provided to individuals suffering from significant life
event.......................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Analyse of organisational responses to the need to support individuals experiencing a
significant life event...............................................................................................................8
3.2 Personal reflection of the provision of support to individuals suffering from significant life
event.......................................................................................................................................8
3.3 Recommendations for improving the support in health and social care service..............9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Significant life events are those events which have both positive and negative impact on
the life of children's and parents. These life events can impact both children's and parents
physical, social, psychological and environmental wellbeing (Kaplanidou and et.al., 2013). Some
positive life events includes: getting married, promotion in job, having a baby, getting a new
house and getting a good job. These all are positive life event and have positive impact on the
social, physical and psychological well-being of the family. On the other hands there are some
negative life events such as: death of a family member or loved ones, sudden loss of
employment, major accidents, financial issues, physical or mental illness in children's and issues
related to domestic violence. The report will analyse the Impact of significant life event on
individuals and on other people in social and health care. Further, it will outline the Effectiveness
of the organisational policies and procedures in supporting individuals suffering from significant
life events. Moreover, the report will evaluate Role of other people in the social network that
provide support to people suffering from significant life events.
In this particular assignment there is discussion on negative life event i.e. loss of a child
by parents. The particular assignment is addressing the grief response of parents, mother named
Sue and father named Tom on the loss of their daughter Jill, due to leukaemia approximately 1
years ago. In this case the mother of Jill i.e. Sue is not able to cope with everyday living due to
loss she had. Tom suggested Sue to attend the professional counselling in order to move on in
life. She used to blame herself that she is still alive and why her daughter die who was so young.
They also have a son name David who was only 12 years old. There is adverse impact of this
event on the parenting style of David as his father wants him to do whatever he wants and
provides him full freedom on the other hand Sue had become more possessive after the loss of
one child.
This assignment will explain the impact of significant life events on the Sue and analyse
the responses from different group of individual on the particular life event. Along with this
assignment will also outline the effectiveness of various policies that provide support to Sue and
her husband who get affected through negative life events. It will also include the
recommendations that are necessary for improvement of support provided to people suffering
from such life events.
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TASK 1
1.1 Impact of significant life event on individuals
As per the views of Prothero and Berggren (2014), the negative life events can affect the
normal life of individuals by hindering their physical, psychological and social wellbeing. This
result in arousal of three situations namely stress, grief and depression. Stress is the physical,
psychological, biological and social response that leads to unexpected changes in the life of
individuals. Physical stress can be caused by low energy, headaches, upset stomach, etc.
Depression or general unhappiness. Anxiety and agitation. Moodiness, irritability, or anger.
Feeling overwhelmed are causes of emotional stress. Psychological stress refers to the emotional
and physiological reactions. For example, marital problems, death of loved ones, financial crises
etc. Social stressors are defined as behaviors and situations, social in nature, that are related to
physical and psychological strain. Examples of social stressors include: verbal aggression from
customers or superiors. Co-worker conflict, negative group environments The cognitive response
of stress includes: inability to concentrate on the routine work, poor judgement, thinking of only
negative side of the event and anxious thoughts. The physiological response includes the impact
on the immune system of the individual that generally includes pain, dizziness, nausea, frequent
colds and weakness. Along with this there are several social and behavioural response of stress
that generally includes: change in sleeping habits, isolation from the social world, start taking
alcohol, cigarettes and drugs and feeling nervous. There are certain emotional response that are
shown by individuals due to stress which includes: moodiness, agitation, feeling overwhelmed,
sense of loneliness and extreme grief.
According to Baxter and et.al., (2014) the common symptoms of grief generally includes
exhaustion and confusion. There are certain theory that explains the grief response among the
individual having significant event of loss in their life. One such theory is Kubler Ross model of
grief which consists of 5 stages and explain the grief process in the individuals.
 The first stage of the theory is Denial, according to this stage the grieving people are not
able to accept their loss. They feel like they had experience a bad dream and think the
loss that occur is unreal.
 Second stage is the expression of anger, after passing through the first stage and by
accepting the loss they started feeling angry on the loss they had faced. In some cases
they even get angry on the person they lost and feeling of abandonment may also occur.
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