Assignment | Supporting Significant Life Events

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................2
LO 1............................................................................................................................................2
Explain the impact of significant life events on individuals.................................................2
Analyze possible group responses to significant life events that occur to one of its
members.................................................................................................................................6
Analyze the impact for others in health and social care when an individual experiences
significant life event..............................................................................................................7
LO 2 ...........................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Evaluation of organizational policies and process..........................................................8
2.2 Assessment of how social platforms aids to significant life experience. .......................9
2.3 Assessment of external factors which influence life events. ........................................10
LO 3..........................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Analyze possible organizational responses to the need to support individuals
experiencing a significant life event....................................................................................11
3.2 Reflective on own personal contributions.....................................................................11
Approach again....................................................................................................................11
3.3 Make recommendations for improving support for individuals and their social
networks when affected by significant life events...............................................................12
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Significant life events have a predictable occurrence of unexpected experiences of
life’s conditions in context of marriage, loss, death, health, adoption of policy/principle or
any such proceedings. This topic is about emphasis on the need of support for dealing with
bereavement and grieving process as per the provided case scenario. It puts insights on the
entire social setup involving the professional health care sector and its qualified practitioners,
social groups like relatives, family, friends etc., and role of organizations to aid in such
coping up. This will also include an outline about the hospital’s policies and procedures for
the cremation ceremony. Furthermore, a reflective will be provided to understand the nuances
of the mindset of people working for this setup. Along with, few recommendations will be
given to make some improvements.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
Explain the impact of significant life events on individuals
As per case study, Sue and Tom lost a child Jill, who died at a very young age due to
leukemia. This came as a huge loss and a shocker to them. In regard to this, Kubler-Ross
Grief Cycle has been followed to understand the stages of an individual’s mindset to cope
with their grief of losing a dear one in a prescribed order.
This cycle reflects the emotions caused due to any situational crises, abuse or
relationship issue. There are five stages, popularly called as DABDA.
Denial: This includes running away from reality due to abrupt shock. It assists in
comprehending the extent of grief as everything looks ambiguous and without any meaning
(PATRICELLI, 2018). Tom and Sue were already paralyzed after knowing about Jill’s
condition six months ago, later due to worse situation, she was hospitalized and this made her
parents realized the reality. They were in denial mode and were trying the avoidance of the
inevitable, i.e. death on this scenario.
Anger: This is a common sign among members when the reality hit them and they transport it
into its dissipation into a never-ending process in cyclic manner. It is good to respond
naturally as this is a necessary phase for healing. Here, Sue and Tom dint suppress it and got
complete support from doctors, nurses and others, however later, Tom become normal but
even after one year, Sue was struggling psychologically and socially.

Bargaining: Tom and Sue observed that their daughter may die and because of such kind of
thought they feel guilt. They went to God through attending prayers and were thinking about
scarcity of time they gave to Jill. They mainly pursuing a way out but in vain as the destiny
was already evident.
Depression: When the final grasp come into existence, which represented the “present locus
point” gets accepted, then this phase develops. Tom and Jill had different ways out. They got
support from organizations to cope but Sue struggle to come on terms of her child’s loss.
Thus, condition was serious.
Acceptance: Stability is the keyword here, where an understanding that life has to go ahead is
vital (Diener, Inglehart and Tay, 2013). Tom recognized the harsh reality in standard mode
but Sue couldn’t and for this, she was asked to attend counseling at professional level.

Figure 1. Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle
(Source: Michaelcnagle, 2010)
Analyze possible group responses to significant life events that occur to one
of its members
The group responses played vital parts in combating the circumstantial emotions
shown by Tom, Sue and the nurse who got affected badly after Jill’s death.
Society: This has an imperative role on the whole in supporting the affected people, who just
went through the trauma of losing out near and dear ones. Relatives and friends cooperate in
soothing out their negative feelings to channelize it into making them move ahead. She was
showered with love and support especially after Jill’s funeral. Bereavement is the biggest
threat to human mind. Sue got good response from her colleagues and employers as well.
They were ready to give her leave for time-span of four weeks without pay, and also ensured
flexible hours after she would re-join. In totality, people associated with her had a positive
contribution in this grieving process.
Community: Their friends also understood their grief and helped them to overcome the pain
through constant talking to deviate from that emptiness. This made this couple realize the
significance of survival for their other child. She also got cooperation from an organization
called Shaping the Bereavement and the Bereavement Partner Support Group, who assisted
her initially to come to terms of Jill’s death and made her realize that recovery is needed for
survival.
Friends: Friends supported her to be comfortable with life and to move ahead. They helped
by creating an environment in which she can feel relaxed and comfortable. Her friends gave
continuous support for relaxing her to combat with traumas of life. They helped her to
overcome from the bereavement by constantly interacting with her and making her feel happy
and come out of isolation.
Family : Family was very supportive with her, they took care of each and every need. She
was getting full encouragement. She was motivated by her family members to live his life
with full positiveness. They weer helping her to understand the situations and different phases
of life that and the need to revive from these situations.

Analyze the impact for others in health and social care when an individual
experiences significant life event
Death has adverse effects on health and social care professionals who are working in
this sector as they must deal with it on daily basis.
Nurses: Any chronic grief affect the nurses at both, personal and professional levels. It does
hamper their mental health that affects the quality of care. They work closely with patients
and start experiencing their pain, leading to difficulty in coping when death occurs. Along
with this, emotionally they found their relationships get adversely influenced. With respect to
physical and social impact, they get disturbed to work at such critical situation, leading to
unfriendly working environment. It not only deteriorated their health by sense of exhaustion
and fatigue at workplace but also have disparities in cultural values like behavioral change,
beliefs or attitude related to dealing of such accidents (Lin, Dean and Ensel, 2013). When
such grief is unresolved, they make other patients and families with a feeling of abandonment
without any support. Therefore, these nurses must be taught by following mechanisms in
developing approaches to deal with such encounters and must be encouraged to sign up for
counseling, if needed.
Along with, nursing is a knowledge based practice and is essential in well being of
patients. Thus, they need to be mentally stronger than anyone to withstand the pain and grief,
however, with experience they know how to hold on their emotions along with understanding
the environment that helps to reduce the risks, errors and more. Sometimes, they need time
off and own recovery time to come out of the impact of any critical case (Johnson, 2015).
Social workers and Support workers: Social workers with support teams work in proximity
with special cases including kids, leading to an affectionate bond with such patients and their
families. Thus, they also feel sad and feeling of unfriendliness. These people are veterans
who needs rehabilitation counseling as they are educated to singled it out as uniform
syndrome, whose spiraling effects on one’s mental health with social needs are unavoidable.
They do feel lost, however, with support from other colleagues, they are able to spring back
with their routine jobs.
Importance of training: This training is important in terms of fetching the optimum
utilization of available resources to comprehend the critical evaluation of any crisis or
emergency. Such sessions assist in controlling emotions and reactions appropriately. It not
only fosters the positive attitude to move ahead but also help in understanding and

acknowledge the loss. Along with, training accelerates the self growth of an individual and
make them realize the value and worth of human feelings and existence of family and friends.
LO 2
2.1 Evaluation of organizational policies and process.
With respect to ‘Bereavement policies and procedures’, the NHS has placed them for
removal of unnecessary steps undertaken by the family after demise of their loved one at
hospital’s premises. It has already been established with reference to Standards for
Bereavement Care of 2001 that all the large or small organizations should have a secured and
efficient services to give the careers and families a chance to grief while following the
procedures systematically for timely funeral with proper religious framework.
The step by step notifications provide individual’s doctor to inform about death’s time
to the appropriate person or the one who would be available at that moment. Moreover,
special attention must be given to perform the last rights on the basis of handing over the
personal records to the concerned person, showing that these policies are patient oriented.
This will pave a path for the family to understand the legalities attached with the deceased
last offices with procedures. Along with this, the final act is the representation of respect and
honor towards the dead person, leading to overall effectiveness of various services like CCG,
NCPC etc. Also, the health care professionals have a separate group to wash and prepare the
deceased’s body properly with its mouth open, limbs straightened and closed eyes (Schäfer,
Jaeger-Erben and Bamberg, 2012). Any belongings must be hand over and subsequently,
post-mortems are considered as disrespectful and should be applied when required for any
investigation. Furthermore, certifications must be issued for initiating cremation which
consisting of death certificate, NHS Medical card and a Green Form.
In regard to the same, these policies make the complicated procedures understandable
and easier for common people. When in any emergency or critical situation, these policies
make the working practices smooth as all the legal guidelines would have been conducted in
sequential order by the family or hospital administration. Furthermore, it focuses on doing all
the treatment procedures under a legal framework. No resuscitation policy is one such policy
which has been useful for sustaining the functionalities of cardiac treatment. This focuses on
not giving this medical procedure as it needs warranted permission and must not be used by
people without any medical experience. This might prove dangerous if followed without
assistance.

Here, the legal health and safety regulations with religious cultural specifications must
be abided to avoid the turmoil caused due to distress, upset or more. Further, groups like
voluntary, spiritual and national organizations together collaborated with hospitals to make it
hassle free for patient’s families to do last rights. Consequently, this policy assists to meet
bereaved people requirements positively and safely. Its impact is widespread as a practical
tool with a proper dissemination in terms of feedback for supervising, de-briefing, counseling
with respect to all tasks.
2.2 Assessment of how social platforms aids to significant life experience.
For such life events, one is in need of effective support system and get it from
anywhere including formal or informal careers. It is significant to have networking for
balancing sanity after experiencing such traumatic situations. Losing a dear one has an
adverse impact psychologically and physically as well. Such individuals need many types of
support that involves financial, psychological, spiritual and physical support. They might feel
guilty, miserable, sad and fear of losing on someone, which has many dire effects on their
mindset. Here, the main emphasis is on the social groups whose proximity is inside that
individual’s circle of trust and genuine concern (Cummins, 2013). Their contribution can help
them in mental health as compassion is the most sacred keyword. Their presence can give
them motivation and can fight back with courage and resilience.
Social networks like friends, family members, relatives, colleagues, etc,. Can come
together in order to provide support to the individuals who is suffering from significant life
experience of loosing a child. It will help in diverting her mind and focus on positive things
on life in order to overcome depression and anxiety.
There is establishment of non-profit organizations like Cruse Bereavement Care for
providing support in coping up with such circumstances and along with, eliminating the
feeling of isolation and loneliness. They organize activities and volunteering activities in
raising information about the coping up procedures as it might be time consuming depending
on person to person. These organizations have laid a foundation of services to offer help and
consists of face-to-face talks, helpline opened for 24*7, email, video conferencing. One must
be empathetic to the fact that this grieving process is a long process and has natural
consequences that might lead to unfavorable outcomes. They conduct such undertakings to
reduce people involved in significant life events anxiety level, stress and giving them a

podium to express themselves for overcoming the outbursts and confusing emotions they
would be going through. They also conduct training sessions and events on continual basis so
that their volunteers can support such people through societal norms.
2.3 Assessment of external factors which influence life events.
Holistic approach is important in providing external support to people. They share and
communicate with people about life event. the friends, relatives, etc. identify problems of
person and provide them solutions on how to recover from it. there are several organization
as well that supports in people from recovering from it. they consist of groups which helps in
providing care facilities. Holistic approach is useful for the individual to overcome from life
disturbing events. It helps individuals to get involved in self care in order to guide the
attitude, belief, feelings and thoughts of an individual.
Sue is taking impeding time for coping with her daughter’s death. She was relieved to know
that it is humane to feel stuck as she was mourning and had no time to value the implications
it had on their lives, including his son’s David.
They went and joined groups namely Shaping the Bereavement and the Bereavement
Partner Support Group which helped them in small amount. They came in contact with other
people who went through such trauma or life events. There are different suitable organization
like Ramsay, Kings hospital, etc.
There has been an evident rise in contacting the external sources such as counselors,
psychiatrists, support groups, solicitors, therapists etc. with respect to facing any critical
situation related to grief or traumatic distress. (Luhmann and Lucas, 2012). Further, it entails
social skills training under the cognitive behavioral approach therapy. Along with the same
lines, the ultimate purpose for forming groups like BPSG (Bereaved Partners Support Group),
is to provide a common platform for those individuals who can share their grievances, stories
and experiences with people having related to some specific loss.
Figure 2. Types of External Support

LO 3
3.1 Analyze possible organizational responses to the need to support individuals
experiencing a significant life event
The hospital management must have skilled workforce to assist and provide support
to people suffering from bereavement. Here, Human Resource Department has a major
contribution in their coordination as well as cooperation while dealing with such significant
life events. The managers have an ability to be connected with their employees in
understanding their daily activities so that they can offer help to them by being well
informed. Additionally, employees including nurses, doctors, counselors etc. need time to
comfort and sympathize with their co-workers and patient families as well to grief and
bereaved. They are sometimes excluded from leisure and social club occupations as nobody
understands how to correspond or interact with them. These events are broadly categorized as
critical episodes that have an impact on mental condition of individual and respond with it, by
applying overwhelming mechanisms through a team of Director, HR and manager (Wrzus
and Neyer, 2013). Hospital management must ensure that there beloved one is safe and will
be okay. Psychologically when treatment of patient goes for long time its main relatives
become more concerned and sometimes come in depression. Thus, doctor must show to
patient and its relatives that problem is not so big and everything will be fine. All these things
will lead to no or depression at small level among individual. Even if patient died its relatives
will be able to absorb shock and will overcome it. Opposite to this, if doctor will be at initial
stage will communicate sorrowful information more clearly then in that case patient relative
may come in depression and death of same may affect patient mental condition. Thus, by
following approach given above hospital can support individuals experiencing a significant
life event.
3.2 Reflective on own personal contributions
Approach again
I provided care to person suffering from life event. in this first of all I identified the
needs of person by understanding her behavior. Then, I communicated with her and
developed a plan that how she can recover from it. I supported individual in sharing her
feelings and comforting her.

In this the most important thing was that I supported individual in fulfilling her needs.
By including her with my friends I tried to provide them a new environment. Also, I learned
that it is very important to understand nature and behavior of individual to recover from life
event. Moreover, it is very difficult to control emotions of individual and share her feelings.
This personal contribution has remarkable effects on my own life. I worked as a social
worker for three years now and closely observing such events have given a significant
viewpoint on relationships. It’s justifiable when one has a backup system to provide teachings
on such issues of bereavement and grief as it is a huge responsibility on our part from
professional side to be unbiased towards such emotional outbursts by the deceased person’s
family (Raymond, 2018). When death takes place, especially of kids, it’s a major setback for
the parents. They get clouded by anger, guilt and pain, which is the dangerous path towards
the doors of depression and aloneness. I tried to make them realize the idea of moving on by
using real life examples of those people who fought against odds to achieve miracles. The
entire societal norms are based on understanding and I tried to show them that counseling and
talking to somebody will help them in letting out their insecurities in more channelized mode.
Furthermore, there are few loopholes in the system as proper guidance must be provided to
all the professionals working in this sector. Few can become emotionless or robotic, which
might send vibes of not having any connection with the patient’s family. Therefore, I want to
establish an interconnected integrated system to have transparency with family so that they
are ready to face any consequences or situations in near future.
3.3 Make recommendations for improving support for individuals and their social
networks when affected by significant life events
As per Open gold standard framework there are four steps which can be followed :-
Preparation phase- in this preparation should be made that how to deal with people. This can
be done by developing plans with local hospitals, social workers, etc.
Training- here, first of all training must be provided to social workers who are engaged in
dealing with people suffering from significant life events. Training can be provided via open
programs. This will help in providing better care services to people.
Reflection – in this performance can be reviewed that how care services was provided and
what improvement are needed. Thus, accordingly changes can be made in culture, practices,
etc.

Accreditation – the practices must be followed and implemented in specified time period.
Policies and procedures can be developed.
Their assessment is work-systematic based on patient-centered leadership, which
supports in improving care for people and their families with conditions. Heath care is a vast
domain and with the help of technologies, professionals are reducing obstacles and enhancing
the endurance proportions of various facilities provided to the patients with varied safe and
effective conditions prevalent (Hobbs, 2013). There are many arenas such as procedures,
policies, accommodation and facilities, management style, culture of organization that need
to be revised and make it feasible for consumption. This computer operated machines have
led to time efficiency but is expensive and at operational level, there might be difficult in
guiding, alerting and maintaining the sophistication required to handle it properly.
The management team should be vigilant in making decisions to cooperate so that
their recovery of bereavement and grief may become convenient. Their feedback system must
be transparent so that safety and quality standards can be maintained consistently. The
management must provide good and hygienic facilities so that patients with their career
would be comfortable and satisfied. The food quality and cleanliness must always be look
into establishing proper care (Piet and Hougaard, 2011).
In regard to the above, stringent measures must be taken to adhere the policies with
discipline, and the procedures regarding discharge or filling up of cremation form etc.
Moreover, the administration must adopt flexible approaches to deal with cases where
bereavement is required. They must incorporate therapy or yoga sessions for informal careers
including friends and relatives etc. or specialists by offering them with related to after results
of anxiety and depression, that has been occurred due to any situation or death. It is
recommended that after death of any patient relative goes in sorrow mood. In that condition
hospital administration must not say to pay the bill. There must be specific provision where
permanent address must be obtained about individual who takes guarantee of patient
treatment. After few days of treatment medical bill must be taken. On other hand, if someone
is high suffered from chronic disease then instead of following paper formality treatment of
patient must be started. Paper formality process irritate patient relatives. Moreover, meeting
can be hold with patient relatives and confidence can be build up among them that patient
will be okay. By doing so to great extent support can be extent by hospital to patient relatives.

CONCLUSION
It is summarized that bereavement process is a long and tiresome arrangement for the ones
who lost somebody, especially kids. Despite the cooperation from all people, Tom and Sue
faced difficulties in overcoming their loss and deep pain caused by it. In addition to it, this
clearly highlighted the responsibilities and roles of organizations and professionals involved
in it. It suggested to promote an integrative structure to make such situations less worsening
by implementing qualitative information and first-hand experienced specialists to handle the
surroundings proficiently.

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