Supporting Significant Life Events: Impact, Policies, and Support

This report analyzes the impact of significant life events, particularly focusing on loss and bereavement, within a healthcare context. It begins by exploring the emotional and psychological impact on individuals, utilizing the Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle to understand the stages of grief. The report then examines group responses, including the roles of society, community, and healthcare professionals (nurses, social workers) in providing support. Organizational policies and procedures, specifically those within the NHS, are evaluated for their effectiveness in supporting bereaved families. The report also assesses the role of social networks and external sources of support, such as counselors and support groups, in aiding individuals through significant life events. Finally, it offers recommendations for improving support systems and addressing the needs of those affected by loss, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive care and understanding within healthcare settings. The report highlights the need for organizational support and professional guidance to navigate the challenges associated with such events.

SUPPORTING SIGNIFICANT LIFE
EVENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Explain the impact of significant life events on individuals........................................................1
Analyze possible group responses to significant life events that occur to one of its members...2
Analyze the impact for others in health and social care when an individual experiences
significant life events...................................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of organizational policies and procedures...................................4
2.2 Explain how others in social networks may provide support to individuals experiencing
significant life events...................................................................................................................5
2.3 Evaluate the suitability of external sources of support for those affected by significant life
events...........................................................................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Analyze possible organizational responses to the need to support individuals experiencing
a significant life event..................................................................................................................7
3.2 Reflective on own personal contributions.............................................................................8
3.3 Make recommendations for improving support for individuals and their social networks
when affected by significant life events......................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

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 provide assistance 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 the 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 is a reflection of 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 analyzing 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 worsened 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 amongst members when the reality hit them and they transport it
into its dissipation into a never ending process in a 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
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support from doctors, nurses and others, however later, Tom progressed gradually but even after
one year, Sue was struggling psychologically and socially.
Bargaining: When Tom and Sue realized their daughter’s turmoil state, they were surrounded by
guilt and pain as well. They went to God through attending prayers, churches etc. and were
thinking about lack 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 struggled to come on terms of her child’s loss. She
still was plagued by many thoughts like Jill was young, she couldn’t tell her how she was loved
etc.
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 counselling 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.
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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’s mind. Sue got positive response from her colleagues and employers as well. They
were ready to give her leave for timespan 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: She 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. However, even after one year, she was
derailed and thus was suggested by Tom to seek a Professional counsellor help. This led Sue in
understanding the 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.
Analyze the impact for others in health and social care when an individual experiences
significant life events
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 griefs 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,
on emotional front, 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 hostile
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 counselling, if needed.
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Social workers and Support workers: It is visible when death occurs, it brings suffering along
with loss as these go hand-in-hand. Social workers with support teams work in close proximity
with special cases including kids, leading to an affectionate bond with such patients and their
families. Thus, they also get emotionally sad and feeling of aloofness. These people are veterans
who needs rehabilitation counselling 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.
LO 2
2.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of organizational policies and procedures
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 carers 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 personal 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 comprising of death
certificate, NHS Medical card and a Green Form.
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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, counselling with respect to all
tasks.
2.2 Explain how others in social networks may provide support to individuals experiencing
significant life events
For such life events, one is in need of strong support system and get it from anywhere
including formal or informal carers. It is significant to have networking for balancing the sanity
after experiencing such traumatic situations. Losing a dear one have 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.
There are 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 comprises 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. Consequently,
these people raise fundraising by establishing projects and invite few celebrities for generating
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awareness about this cause, which has been neglected by the society. They also conduct training
sessions and events on continual basis so that their volunteers can support such people through
societal norms.
2.3 Evaluate the suitability of external sources of support for those affected by significant life
events
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. These are classified on the basis of diverged categories of
occupation, spiritual, phycologist, counselor, culture or religion beliefs. In regard to this, various
reasons have been considered for this onset of suitability of referrals. It consists of individual
circumstances like death, coma etc.; depression and anxiety issues with existential fear and lack
of management of situation, spiritual needs, denial mode, prolong silence and historical
background of lack of stress and many more. This suitability is due to a psychological perception
of need for holistic support with significant involvement of timescales to attain the personalized
treatment plan for managing side-effects and related symptoms (Luhmann and Lucas, 2012).
Further, it entails social skills training under the cognitive behavioral approach therapy. This
training is applicable to recognize about the stigmas in context of confidence, medications,
depression and medication to ease that is experienced by the deceased’s family and relatives.
Along with the same lines, the ultimate purpose for forming groups like BPSG (Bereaved
Partners Support Group) etc. is to provide a common platform for those individuals who can
share their grievances, stories and experiences with people having related to same sort of loss.
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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, the employees
including nurses, doctors, counselors etc. need time to comfort and sympathize with their co-
workers and patient’s families as well to grief and bereaved. They sometimes are 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 influence of distress
to cope and respond with it, by applying overwhelming mechanisms through a team of Director,
HR and manager (Wrzus and Neyer, 2013). Their motto is to de-briefing, diffusing and
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Psychiatrists/
Pschologists /
Counsellors
Solicitators/
Legal
Advisors
Hea th Care
Agencies
Theraphy/
Yoga
Spiritual
support
Groups

critiquing sessions by showering additional support and a follow up. These are necessary phases
to minimize the psychological harm one goes through and de-briefing must be taken before 72
hours of the occurrence of incident with the end point of a follow up that ensures the entire
coping time of the affected persons.
3.2 Reflective on own personal contributions
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 importance of life, people and 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). It is complicated as a role of supporter in health care sector as
sometimes, it leads to frustration and anxious attacks due to stress levels caused by the
circumstantial uncontrollable problems. When death takes place, especially of kids, it’s a major
setback for everyone especially the parents. They get clouded by anger, guilt and pain, which is
the dangerous path towards the doors of depression and aloneness. There is always an emptiness
in their lives, which is filled by me. 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 empathy 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
Their assessment is work-systematic based with focus 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, the professionals are reducing obstacles and
enhancing the endurance proportions of various facilities provided to the patients with number of
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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.
Additionally, the prominent emergence of involvement of technology in medical field are
seeing many benefits, however, on the other side, there are few challenges which are evident in
unifying an understanding of health with applications for smooth running of all operational
activities. The management team should be vigilant in making decisions to cooperate so that
their recovery of bereavement and grief can be make accessible and 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 with cleanliness must always be look into
establishing proper care (Piet and Hougaard, 2011). The proactive resourcing with context to
cost benefits must also be kept in mind to know the organization responsibility in fulfilling all
recommendations made for their overall development with patient’s response.
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, green 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 the informal carers
including friends, relatives, family 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.
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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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cummins, R.A., 2013. Subjective well-being, homeostatically protected mood and depression: A
synthesis. In The exploration of happiness (pp. 77-95). Springer, Dordrecht.
Diener, E., Inglehart, R. and Tay, L., 2013. Theory and validity of life satisfaction scales. Social
Indicators Research. 112(3). pp.497-527.
Hobbs, R.J., 2013. Grieving for the past and hoping for the future: balancing polarizing
perspectives in conservation and restoration. Restoration Ecology. 21(2). pp.145-148.
Lin, N., Dean, A. and Ensel, W.M. eds., 2013. Social support, life events, and depression.
Academic Press.
Luhmann, M. and Lucas, R.E., 2012. Subjective well-being and adaptation to life events: a meta-
analysis. Journal of personality and social psychology. 102(3). p.592.
Piet, J. and Hougaard, E., 2011. The effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for
prevention of relapse in recurrent major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. Clinical psychology review. 31(6). pp.1032-1040.
Schäfer, M., Jaeger-Erben, M. and Bamberg, S., 2012. Life events as windows of opportunity for
changing towards sustainable consumption patterns? Journal of Consumer Policy. 35(1). pp.65-
84.
Wrzus, C. and Neyer, F.J., 2013. Social network changes and life events across the life span: a
meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin. 139(1). p.53.
Online
Michaelcnagle, 2010. Kubler Ross Grief Cycle. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.slideshare.net/michaelcnagle/kubler-ross-grief-cycle>.
PATRICELLI, K., 2018. Stage of Grief Models: Kubler-Ross. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/stage-of-grief-models-kubler-ross/>.
Raymond, C., 2018. Life Decisions to Delay If You're Grieving. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.verywellmind.com/decisions-to-delay-if-youre-grieving-4065127>.
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