Impact of Significant Life Events on Individuals and Support Systems

This report delves into the multifaceted impact of significant life events, with a specific focus on the loss of a loved one. It examines the potential and actual effects of such events across different age groups and stages of life, considering both physical and mental health implications. The report analyzes the impact on individuals, families, friends, and wider social networks, discussing theoretical principles like life-span development and linked lives. It compares internal and external organizations providing support, such as welfare services, local authorities, and healthcare providers, highlighting the roles of healthcare teams, particularly healthcare assistants. The report critically assesses challenges in partnership approaches, including lack of information and financial difficulties, while reflecting on organizational effectiveness in promoting coordinated support. It also outlines relevant policies and procedures, emphasizing legislative requirements and the provision of care services. Finally, it provides a critical review of staff knowledge and skills in supporting individuals experiencing significant life events.

SUPPORTING
INDIVIDUALS THROUGH
SIGNIFICANT LIFE
EVENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Discussion of potential and actual impact of life events that have occurred at different ages
and stages in the lives of different individuals............................................................................1
Discuss impact of highlighted events on individuals, their families, friends and wider social
networks.......................................................................................................................................2
Critical discussion on theoretical principals and the effect family, friends and wider social
networks have in relation to significant life events.....................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
Comparisons of internal and external organisations used for individuals going through
significant life events...................................................................................................................2
Discuss roles of the individuals of the healthcare team in providing support and assistance to
the individual affected by a significant life event........................................................................3
Critical analysis of difficulties to partnership approaches for the individual and family affected
by significant life events..............................................................................................................4
Critical reflection on organisational effectiveness to promoting co-ordinated support for the
individual affected by significant life events...............................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3A Aspects of policies and procedures that help to support individuals affected by significant
life events and ways in which policies and procedures support individuals and their social
networks through Significant life events.....................................................................................5
3B critical reflective review of staff knowledge and skills to support individuals experiencing
significant life events...................................................................................................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
Reflecting upon people who have faced life events are required support in the care of service
provision......................................................................................................................................6
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Significant life events are different kinds of events that can result in bringing substantial
chances within individual’s lives (Bleidorn, Hopwood and Lucas, 2018). Some of the main life
evets are employment, loss of someone close, increase or decrease in wealth, health related
events etc. Doe this assignment significant life event focused upon is loss of someone close.
TASK 1
Discussion of potential and actual impact of life events that have occurred at different ages and
stages in the lives of different individuals
There are various kinds of significant life events that have different impact upon
individuals at different age and stages of life Each individual has different impact of significant
life events upon themselves. Such events can impact both physical and mental health of an
individual. Impact of these events upon different stages of individuals are:
 Birth and infancy: Life events can directly impact fulfilment of needs of individuals. At this
stage.
 Childhood: impact of life events at this stage can impact learning ability of children (Pocnet
and et. al., 2016).
 Adulthood: Most of the life events at this stage majorly impact mental health of an
individual. For example: Sudden loss of someone close can impact mental health of
individual can result in increasing depressions, stress and many times this depression can
lead to addition of substances like alcohol, drugs etc.
 Late adulthood: At this stage life events can majorly impact physical and mental health of
individual. Like loss of someone can result in certain critical diseases like high BP, diabetes
etc.
Life event Stages of individual Potential impact
Loss of someone close Birth and infancy fulfilment of needs
Childhood impact learning ability
Adulthood increasing depressions, stress
Late Adulthood critical diseases like high BP,
diabetes
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Discuss impact of highlighted events on individuals, their families, friends and wider social
networks.
Physical and emotional impact on individual: Loss of someone close can result in change in
behaviour of individual due to increase in anger, stress, depression etc. Physical impact of life
event can be increase in physical activity.
Social and economic impact upon family: Life event like loss of someone close can impact
family members as well. like loss of someone close can result in change in relationship
dynamics, additional responsibilities upon other family members can increase (Ali and et. al.,
2019).
Impact upon social network: Social network can include work colleagues, friends etc. Impact of
life events such as loss of someone can impact relationship with work colleagues like their
expectation from individual can increase. Emotional support of friends for individual can
increase. Development of new relationship can take place.
Critical discussion on theoretical principals and the effect family, friends and wider social
networks have in relation to significant life events
Some of the main and important theoretical principles of life events upon family, wider
social network is: life- span development, timing, linked lives, relationship development etc.
Most of the times impact of significant life events are based upon these theoretical principles.
Major impact upon family members, friends, social network of individual who had suffered from
significant life event (Dominguez and et. al., 2020). Sometimes impact of these effects are
positive and sometimes negative. Positive effect is development of new relationship with others,
development of sense of responsibility. Whereas negative impact can be helplessness, feeing of
guilt, depression etc.
TASK 2
Comparisons of internal and external organisations used for individuals going through significant
life events
There are various kinds of internal and external organizations that are used for
individuals who goes though significant life events. Both internal and external organizations
have different role in provision of support to individuals going through significant life events.
Some of the main type of organizations that provide support to individuals going through
significant life events are:
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Welfare and social services: These are voluntary organizations who focuses upon provision of
support to individuals so that their mental heath needs and requirements can be fulfilled. If such
individuals require any kind of support like behavioural support or advocacy then these services
are also provided to the individuals such as financial advisory service etc.
Local Authority service: These are social organizations who focus upon providing service to
such individuals though social work (Ayalon and Cohn-Schwartz, 2020). These organizations
provide social service, housing support to individuals who have gone through significant life
events. Many times, if required family and children service is also provided to such people.
Healthcare service: Most of the time for individuals going through significant life events
require healthcare services like consultancy, counsellors, specialist nurses, psychologist,
therapist like speech therapist, occupational heath service, psychotherapist and many more.
These type of organization plays a vital role in provision of required service to
individuals who had gone though or are going through significant life events. As these
organizations helps in enhancement of physical and mental condition of such individuals,
provide morale, financial and family support as well and if any kind of advice is required then it
is also provided to such individuals.
Discuss roles of the individuals of the healthcare team in providing support and assistance to the
individual affected by a significant life event
There are various kinds of individuals work within a healthcare organization who works
both individuals and within teams for provision of support and assistance to such individuals
who have been affected by a significant life event. One of the most important roles in provision
of healthcare service to such individuals is role of healthcare assistant. They provide various
kinds of assistance and support to such individuals in many different ways: They help in
maintaining effective communication between individuals, family members and other different
kinds of services used by the individuals (Hall, Prayag and Amore, 2017). They are also
responsible for timely and appropriate record keeping so that appropriate care can be provided to
individuals with an effective support plan. Healthcare assistant are also responsible for providing
supportive specialist care. they also help the individual in dealing with drastic impact of
significant life events by creating awareness and compassion of implications of changes,
significant life events in order to deal with negative impacts of changes and life events. They
majorly focus upon providing support to the individual as well their family members so that they
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can adopt themselves and bring required changes within themselves or adopting drastic changes
within their lives or adopt changing requirements in an appropriate manner (Wang, Guchait and
Pasamehmetoglu, 2020). they also help in providing support to family members so that they can
take important decisions that are required to be taken for themselves and for their family. They
work with partnership with other support organizations so that effective care and support can be
provided to the individual as well as their family members.
Critical analysis of difficulties to partnership approaches for the individual and family affected
by significant life events
There are various kinds of difficulties related to partnership approach for all the
individuals and family members who have been impacted by significant life events. Some of the
most commonly identified difficulties in this partnership approach are as follows: one of the
main difficulties in this approach is of lack of information, knowledge and awareness of service
available. Many times, these difficulties increase or intensified due to lack of resources and poor
communication. It is important to have appropriate and complete knowledge of the event or
current situation so that coordination between different kinds of services can be maintained. If
this coordination is missing within service providers then it can become one of the main
difficulties in provision of partnership approach (Garnelo and et. al., 2020). Many times,
individuals whom service is being provided lives far because of which service providers need to
travel as lot. So due to times it becomes difficult to take an appointment by travelling far. Other
than this there are many other difficulties due to which partnership approaches for the individual
and family affected by significant life events can become difficult such as: financial difficulties,
unawareness of culture, reluctancy of individuals in engaging within this approach, poor care
planning, usage of implementation of non- person centred approach so that support can be
offered to individuals as well as to their family members.
Critical reflection on organisational effectiveness to promoting co-ordinated support for the
individual affected by significant life events
Organizations are effective in promotion of coordinated support for individuals affected
by significant life events if they maintain co-ordination between each other. It can only be done
if they focus upon maintaining effective communication with each other. It is important for
organization to gain appropriate information related to case of individual and their family and
collect required information required for development of an effective care plan (Coffman and
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Swank, 2020). This information will also help organization to prepare individuals so that they
can deal with sudden changes within their lives and can adopt themselves as per the new changes
and significant live events in a positive manner.
TASK 3
3A Aspects of policies and procedures that help to support individuals affected by significant life
events and ways in which policies and procedures support individuals and their social
networks through Significant life events
Some of the main aspects of policies and procedure that can help in providing support to
individuals as well as their family members who have been affected by significant life events
are: health and social care organizations need to work with legislative requirements like policies
and framework so that support can be provided to individuals with different kinds of financial
implications in relationship with protecting and safeguarding individuals who are vulnerable due
to drastic impact of significant life events (Vindevogel and Verelst, 2020). This will help in
enhancing their overall mental health capability in a proper manner and negative impact of
significant life events upon mental health of individuals and their family members can be
reduced. Another aspect of policies and procedure is provision of required and effective care
service to individuals by providing and allotting support service to individuals in a proper and
effective manner. this can help the service providers in ensuing that support provided to
individuals is appropriate and is helping in fulfilling their needs and requirements in a proper and
appropriate manner. Another important aspect of policies and procedure that can help in
provision of effective support to individuals is receipt of service care provided to such people as
well as to their family members ( Bleidorn, Hopwood and Lucas, 2018). If there is requirement
of any kind of restraining orders for increasing effectivity of services provided to the individuals
then it can be focused upon and care plan for such people can be developed keeping it in focus.
3B critical reflective review of staff knowledge and skills to support individuals experiencing
significant life events
Staff members who provide support to individuals experiencing significant life events
needs to have various kinds of knowledge and skills so that they can provide support to
individuals experiencing significant life events. They need to have complete knowledge of
individuals case and services that can be provided to them. They also need to have safety and
risk management skills so that they can easily manage all kinds of risk and issues that can work
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as a barrier in provision of effective services to individuals. Organizational polices and procedure
helps in development of these services in a much better manner, such as: they provide proper and
effective staff training to staff members in which training about different kinds of services can be
provided to them ( Bleidorn, Hopwood and Lucas, 2018). Training related to resourcing and
equipment keeping is also provide to staff members so that they can learn effective ways though
which they can effectively make use of appropriate resources and equipment so that services can
be provide in an effective manner. procedures and policies of organisation also helps in
maintaining an appropriate and effective communication which further helps in increasing
effectiveness of services.
TASK 4
Reflecting upon people who have faced life events are required support in the care of service
provision.
It is important for me as a health care professional to provide better treatment to people who are
suffering from different life events. One of the common and natural life event which has several
negative effects on people is losing someone close. When an individual lose someone who was
close to him/her have several effects as it increases anxiety, stress and depression in them. So it
is important to provide better treatment. As a care provider I will take help of other family
members of an individual who has lost his someone close. By making use of family involvement
and patient centre care approach I can get all information as why people are feeling depressed as
what was the main strength and specialty of people who is no more and that is why his closest
one is feeling depressed (Boelen and Lenferink, 2020).
By making use of family involvement approach I will try to make that individual able to
share his feelings because in this situation, individuals do not prefer to talk to anyone and it
affects their social and economic life. They do not interact with their friends and other family
members. So, by involving family members in family involvement approach I will try to
encourage individual to interact with people and make them feel valued that there are some
people who are concerned for them and think about that. In this type of situation when an
individual lost his someone close then they require extra care and attention for forgetting all
those negative incidents and memories of them. In addition, I believe that in this type of life
event, people require extra care and someone who can understand their feelings and with whom
they can share their emotions and for this patient centre care approach can be suitable. As per the
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patient centre care approach I will try to encourage individual to interact, share feelings by
making him sure that he will not be judged. By understanding his emotions and asking for
making use of further counselling and other treatments which they think can help them out. This
approach is all about respecting patients’ decision regarding health care and emotions of them
related to life event for making them feel valued.
In addition, for more understanding emotions of an individual who has lost someone close and in
this life stage, I will collect information of all those who are at the same life event in which I
will make a community of the similar suffering people. This will be helpful to each others
emotions in a better way. It is being said that people who are at same life events and are suffering
from same type of problems are more likely to understand views, feelings and emotions of each
other’s and it improves their health as well. By making an effective use of policies and
procedures related to this like not to force individual in taking participation in patient centre care
and family involvement approach (Frivold, Slettebø and Dale, 2016). Not to pressurize them to
take treatment and providing them opportunity to select and take health care related decision.
In the context of losing someone close is one of the main lose and people face difficulties in
believing and accepting that their loved one has gone, problems in trusting others, having
feelings that without them, there is no mean of life, grieving of getting worse instead of getting
better. So, in this situation, I believe that meditation and exercise plays an important role.
Exercise including walk, riding bicycle, taking consultation class can help people in treating and
making them normal and understanding that it is a part of a life and there are a lot of things
which they can do better and make their life happening once again. Depression and anxiety is
one of the main disease from which individual suffering from in this life event and it is important
for them to take at least 6-8 hours of sleep. It makes them feel refreshed and tension free. I also
believe that for escaping something and feelings which hurt us, we all require doing a new
interesting thing like exploring a new skill by singing, taking participation in different interesting
activities (Lenferink, Wessel and Boelen, 2018). By encouraging people and developing some
seminars related to this health can be improved and people can be made feel pleased and happy
once again.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
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Journal of Business Studies (JBS). 15(1).
Ayalon, L. and Cohn-Schwartz, E., 2020. The reciprocal temporal associations between
subjective age and social relations in adult day care centers over a one-year
period. International Journal of Behavioral Development, p.0165025420935620.
Bleidorn, W., Hopwood, C.J. and Lucas, R.E., 2018. Life events and personality trait
change. Journal of Personality. 86(1). pp.83-96.
Boelen, P.A. and Lenferink, L.I., 2020. Associations of Depressive Rumination and Positive
Affect Regulation with Emotional Distress After the Death of a Loved One. Clinical
Psychology & Psychotherapy.
Coffman, E. and Swank, J., 2020. Attachment Styles and the Family Systems of Individuals
Affected by Substance Abuse. The Family Journal, p.1066480720934487.
Dominguez, S., and et. al., 2020. A randomized controlled trial examining the impact of
individual trauma‐focused therapy for individuals receiving group treatment for
depression. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
Frivold, G., Slettebø, Å. and Dale, B., 2016. Family members’ lived experiences of everyday life
after intensive care treatment of a loved one: a phenomenological hermeneutical
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Hall, C.M., Prayag, G. and Amore, A., 2017. Tourism and resilience: Individual, organisational
and destination perspectives. Channel View Publications.
Lenferink, L.I., Wessel, I. and Boelen, P.A., 2018. Exploration of the associations between
responses to affective states and psychopathology in two samples of people confronted with
the loss of a loved one. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 206(2), pp.108-115.
Pocnet, C., and et. al., 2016. Individuals’ quality of life linked to major life events, perceived
social support, and personality traits. Quality of life research. 25(11). pp.2897-2908.
Vindevogel, S. and Verelst, A., 2020. Supporting mental health in young refugees: a resilience
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Springer, Cham.
Wang, X., Guchait, P. and Pasamehmetoglu, A., 2020. Anxiety and gratitude toward the
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