Supporting Significant Life Events

This report discusses the impact of significant life events on individuals, such as dementia and bereavement. It analyzes possible group responses and the impact on others in health and social care. The report also provides recommendations for improving support in care organizations for affected individuals and social networks.

Running Head: Supporting Significant Life Events
Supporting Significant Life Events

Supporting Significant Life Events 1
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Part 1...........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explain the physical, psychological and social impact on individuals suffering from, for example,
dementia and bereavement......................................................................................................................3
1.2 Analyse possible group response to bereavement and ill health........................................................5
1.3 Analyse the impact for others in health and social care when an individual, for example, has
dementia and bereavement......................................................................................................................7
Part 3...........................................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Analyse possible organisation responses to the need to support individuals experiencing a
significant life event................................................................................................................................8
3.2 Health and social care professional, reflect on your own personal contributions to the support of
individuals experiencing significant life events such as bereavement.....................................................9
3.3 Make recommendations for improving support available in a care organisation for affected
individuals and social networks.............................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12

Supporting Significant Life Events 2
Introduction
This report has been prepared on the topic “Supporting Significant Life Events”. Various events
take place in the life of an individual which create an impact on the quality of life of the
individual. Significant life events can be understood as the major changes in the circumstances of
the individual which affects the life of the individual. This report has discussed the impact of
these events on the individual, effectiveness of the policies and procedures in providing support
to the individuals, the response of the organization to the need of individual dealing with
significant life event and recommendations for enhancing the support in HSC organization to the
individuals. Service providers need to ensure that proper support and care is provided to the
individual facing a significant life event. Effective communication process needs to be used for
communicating with the individual so as to identify the support needs.

Supporting Significant Life Events 3
Part 1
1.1 Explain the physical, psychological and social impact on individuals suffering from, for
example, dementia and bereavement
Dementia is the stage when a person develops feelings and emotions of grief and agrees to
continue with it. This may cause loss of their abilities and skills and independence as well. A
person gets lost and starts feeling isolated because he/she will feel everything very confusing and
unfamiliar (Alz. Org, 2012). They may seem frightened and worried about their future.
Bereavement is the condition when an individual is suffering from a loss. The loss can be
because of the death of anyone or the loved one.
There are severe effects on the social, physical and psychological aspect when a person is
suffering from dementia and bereavement.
As per the given case study, the social impact seen on the women who was facing it was
that she could not take care of her daughter and for which she had to move to England from
Spain so that her family members can take care of her daughter. Moreover, she could not
concentrate on her work and her boss started doubting her as if she was involved in taking drugs
(NIH, 2017).
The physical pain caused due to dementia is a person starts feeling anosmatic throughout
the day and night. According to the case study, the lady had taken around 40 appointments in a
year which included brain scans to sleep studies. She also suffered from losing hairs and
sometimes even forgets to eat or get dressed. For this, she had to leave Spain and travel England
so that her family would support her and take care of her daughter as well (NIH, 2017).

Supporting Significant Life Events 4
Likewise, psychological impact was also seen during the case. She could not realize what
was real and what was unreal and moreover, she could find out the difference between what was
important and what was unimportant. She could not concentrate easily on the work as well as on
her personal life. She could not make sense of whatever was told to her. Although she could
listen to it but cannot react what to say.

Supporting Significant Life Events 5
1.2 Analyse possible group response to bereavement and ill health
It all depends on people to people how they react to someone who is suffering from bereavement
and ill health. Some people support the victims while some may think it can be cured slowly by
the person on their own. But one should always support other when he/she is suffering from any
losses. In the given symptoms, an individual supports the victims and encourage them to share
their feelings only if they wish to (Thorpe et al., 2012). They do not force the patient to say
anything theta they do not wish to do. Some patients may not be express their feelings orally so
one can use other activities to support them and know what they exactly feel. They must be given
enough time to express and make them comfortable enough so that they can mix up with you and
start reducing stress. Whatever they feel to do must be supported like if they wish to try new
hobby then they must be given the opportunity to do the same (Schoenmakers, Buntinx and
Delepeleire, 2010). For an example, to identify the needs of the patient, we can use assistive
technology. Assistive technology is a device which helps to identify the everyday living of an
individual.
Some people are highly involved in meditation, prayers or yoga. These activities help to
cope with the stress and lead a peaceful life. So, when a person is suffering from such disease,
he/she must be motivated to adopt such spiritual needs which will help them to satisfy their inner
peace. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to identify the inner needs of a person which a
prayer can easily so. Likewise, counsellor also plays a major role in it because they will be able
to provide dementia support about what they feel (Alzheimer’s society, 2017).
For an example, if a girl gets married and her husband dies after few months of the
marriage. It becomes very difficult for a widow to face the society as well the recover herself

Supporting Significant Life Events 6
from the pain and feelings that were attached to her husband. It becomes very difficult to know
what she exactly feels and how will be she able to get out of that pain. There she must suffer
psychologically and mentally (Svanberg, Spector and Stott, 2011).

Supporting Significant Life Events 7
1.3 Analyse the impact for others in health and social care when an individual, for example,
has dementia and bereavement.
Grief is that stage of feelings when it becomes difficult for the victim to pass their time and they
start feeling guilty for no reasons. If an individual is suffering from dementia and bereavement,
then it has the impact on the other also. People who live with them or the people who are around
them has also to suffer along with the patients (Nappa, 2012). It is also a kind of loss for all the
family members. Family assures the victims that they are not the one who is suffering because
they are the one who always keeps supporting the patient. The family members may feel guilty
for the way the patient reacts and gets treated to cure the disease (Alzheimer’s society Canada,
2017). Their odd behaviour and lost tempers may hamper the others. It may create unwanted
responsibility for the others to take care of the patient. It may cause loss of relationships and one
cannot plan their future together. It is quite obvious to feel angry and that anger can create
difficult behaviours which the other can find difficult to manage. Sometimes, a person may feel
to hit the person who is suffering from dementia (Salehi, Dang and Das, 2014).
So it is very difficult to manage such people who are suffering from dementia because
their unpredictable behaviour may create problems for others and family members too.

Supporting Significant Life Events 8
Part 3
3.1 Analyse possible organisation responses to the need to support individuals experiencing
a significant life event
Bereavement implies the action of being bereaved. In other words, bereavement means grief
which is a normal part of life.The people who are suffering from bereavement they need some
support as they start facing challenges such as lack of motivation, confusion, more frequent
illness, anxiety and many more. The possible organization responses to the need to support
individuals experiencing a significant life can be described as follows:
The organization can support them by providing bereavement policy and acknowledging
them personally. Bereavement policy involves paid leaves and vacation leaves which make the
employees feel relieved (Roepe, 2017).
They can also conduct grief counselling which can help the employees to recover soon. A
grief counsellor can answer the victim’s questions and can provide emotional support to them.
The employers should offer the victims their sympathy and ask them if they can do anything to
help them. The employer should convince the victim that they do not need to worry everything is
all right at work. The deadlines of their work should be exceeded so that they can complete their
work easily without any stress. The organization can conduct some sessions for the victims
which can help them to recover soon (Alis, 2015).

Supporting Significant Life Events 9
3.2 Health and social care professional, reflect on your own personal contributions to the
support of individuals experiencing significant life events such as bereavement
Bereavement is the position when an individual suffers from huge loss or when an individual is
not capable to think properly (FCA, 2016). There are several counsellors who work on these
types of diseases. I personally believe that when a person is suffering from such disease, then
he/she loses to his/her conscious mind and cannot focus on what they do(Dementia, 2017). I
have also experienced such people in my life and she was my close friend. She was suffering
from the same problem which was later cured after so much of efforts. I used to visit her every
day and encourage her to do those activities which she was interested in. she used to express
sometimes about what she feels but it was not so easy to understand those emotions. I also
motivated her to perform some spiritual activities like yoga and prayers because I felt a pinch of
the smile on her face whenever she used to perform yoga. I don’t know what made her smile,
what that yoga or something else .
Moreover, I also helped her to get involved in some activities that she would enjoy doing
like playing with numbers, watching comedy videos but it did not work at all. At last, I visited a
doctor who helped her to get rid of it.

Supporting Significant Life Events 10
3.3 Make recommendations for improving support available in a care organisation for
affected individuals and social networks
Here are few recommendations that will help to improve the affected victims.
a) They must be given special priority such as they must be given an opportunity to express
what they feel and what makes them happy. It happens generally that people who suffer
from such diseases fail to express what they feel and creates more subconscious mind.
He/she will look for the person whom she can share. So, in order to avoid their
loneliness, close ones must be along with the patient who can listen to what the victim
feels (Alzheimer’s Association, 2018).
b) Since they are the one who suffers, so they do not the ability to think properly. The
special programme must be conducted that would focus the inner activities of the
patients. There are several programmes which help to identify the psychological disorder
of the patients. These programs must be organized with the patient participation.
c) Likewise, a care organization must ensure that the victims are given emotional support. It
generally happens that the family members get frustrated and they fail to deal with such
people. But this must be avoided because an emotional support plays a major role in the
cure of these patients (Tily, 2014).

Supporting Significant Life Events 11
Conclusion
This report has discussed the impact of the significant life event on the health and quality of life
of a person. Impact of the significant event can be seen on the mental health as well as physical
health of the individual. There is a need to provide support to the individuals who are
experiencing a significant life event. In the case provided Jacqui was suffering from dementia
which has resulted in social impact, physical impact and mental health. Support has to be
provided by the HSC organizations to these individuals so as to enhance the quality of life of
these individuals. For providing support to the individual's organizations can adopt different
measures. These measures include support groups, long-established practice, setting operating
procedure standards for providing quality services and adopting a family-centric approach.
Young Dementia UK has provided support to Jacqui which has helped Jacqui in shifting to her
own flat.

Supporting Significant Life Events 12
References
Alis, 2015, Employers: Helping Your Employees Cope With Loss, Viewedon February 16, 2018.
Available at:https://www.umass.edu/studentlife/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/Helping
%20Your%20Employees%20Cope%20With%20Loss.pdf
Alz. Org, 2012, What Is Dementia, viewed on 15th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.alz.org/what-is-dementia.asp
Alzheimer’s Association, 2018, dementia Care Practice Recommendations, viewed on 16th
February, 2018. Available on: https://www.alz.org/dementia-care-practice-recommendations/
Alzheimer’s society Canada, 2017, Impact on family and friends, viewed on 15th February,
2018. Available on: www.alzheimer.ca/en/Home/Living-with-dementia/Staying-
connected/How-relationships-change/Impact-of-the-disease/Family-and-friends
Alzheimer’s society, 2017, Understanding and supporting a person with dementia ,
Viewed on 15th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/info/20046/help_with_dementia_care/31/
understanding_and_supporting_a_person_with_dementia/4
Dementia, 2017, Sources of support for families, viewed on 16th February, 2018. Available
on:https://www.dementiauk.org/sources-of-support-for-families/
FCA, 2016, Guide to understand dementias patients, viewed on 16th February, 2018. Available
on: https://www.caregiver.org/caregivers-guide-understanding-dementia-behaviors
Nappa, U. 2012, the effect of bereavement groups on grief, anxiety, and depression - a
controlled, prospective intervention study, viewed on 15th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941031/
NIH, 2017, What Is Dementia, viewed on 15th February, 2018. Available
on:https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-dementia

Supporting Significant Life Events 13
Roepe, R.L., 2017 How to Support Employees through Grief and Loss, Viewed on February 16,
2018. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0917/pages/how-to-
support-employees-through-grief-and-loss.aspx
Salehi, A., Dang, V. and Das, D., 2014. Neurobiological Basis of Cognitive Dysfunction in
Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 35(3), p.719.
Schoenmakers, B., Buntinx, F. and Delepeleire, J., 2010. Factors determining the impact of care-
giving on caregivers of elderly patients with dementia. A systematic literature review. Maturitas,
66(2), pp.191-200.
Svanberg, E., Spector, A. and Stott, J., 2011. The impact of young onset dementia on the family:
a literature review. International Psychogeriatric, 23(3), pp.356-371.
Thorpe, J.M., Thorpe, C.T., Kennelty, K.A., Gellad, W.F. and Schulz, R., 2012. The impact of
family caregivers on potentially inappropriate medication use in no institutionalized older adults
with dementia. The American journal of geriatric pharmacotherapy, 10(4), pp.230-241.
Tily, J., 2014, Dementia Care Practice Recommendations for Assisted Living Residences and
Nursing Homes, viewed on 16th February, 2018. Available
on:https://www.alz.org/national/documents/brochure_DCPRphase3.pdf