Wednesday, February 01, 2012
A resource a month over 2011 and into 2012
1.Neimeyer RA, Harris DA, Winokuer HR, Thornton GF (eds)
Grief and bereavement in contemporary society. Bridging research and practice
Routledge 2011
This book has contributions from 60 eminent writers (both clinicians and researchers) on grief and bereavement from 10 countries around the world.
It is has 31 chapters and is divided into 6 main sections – current conceptualisations of the grief process, contexts of grieving, challenges in bereavement, specific populations, specialised treatment modalities, grief in a global perspective. If you have read widely on bereavement issues, you will recognise many of the authors. If you have not, you will be introduced to a wide variety of contemporary perspectives. I have dipped into a number of chapters and I was especially struck by the chapter on “The remedy is not working” – seeking just and culturally conscientious practices in bereavement by Valarie Molaison et al. It describes and comments on the issue of death and grieving in a case study of a young African-American youth in a poor inner city area in the United States. It was challenging, engaging and sad. One would like to know how the young man viewed his counselling many years on. Does he even remember it? – or will the experience be of any use to him sometime in his future?
2.Wimpenny P, Costello J (eds)
Grief loss and bereavement. Evidence and practice for health and social care practitioners.
Routledge 2012
This book also has a broad remit though it is aimed at practitioners to a greater extent and most of the contributors are working in Scotland, either as practitioners or as researchers. It has sixteen chapters and is divided into 3 parts – 1) bereavement across the life span 2) contexts of bereavement and 3) education interventions and organisation of bereavement care. The context of bereavement section covers topics such as bereavement in primary care, perinatal bereavement, bereavement in care homes and bereavement and occupational health. There is an interesting array of figures, tables and boxes (26 in all) that summarise key concepts in current thinking on bereavement issues. It is a book aimed at specialists in bereavement work but also at health and social care professionals who need to further their understanding of bereavement issues in the context of their overall work. A poem by a poet based in Scotland called The dead is on the introductory page and it can be viewed on the poet’s website:
http://www.pauline-prior-pitt.com/poems.html
3.Wicks Robert J
The resilient clinician
Oxford University Press 2008
This is not newly published, nor is it specifically on bereavement. However, it is for counsellors and any professional involved in working closely with people who need help with emotional problems. It is written by a psychotherapist and the essence of the book is about how clinicians care for and know themselves so that they can continue to have the “space” to offer to others. It enables one to assess the extent to which one is currently reacting to stress in dealing with one’s clients. The first three chapters provide some idea of the approach: Sensing the dangers - chronic and acute secondary stress: Enhancing resiliency - strengthening one’s own self-care protocol: Replenishing the self-solitude, silence and mindfulness. The author places great emphasis on daily debriefing and concludes with some questions to aid reflection.
I especially liked one quote, reputedly from the Russian playwright (and doctor) Anton Chechov “Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s the day to day living that wears you out”.
4. Bereavement Care. A recent issue focussed on evaluation of
bereavement services – below are key references from this issue
(2011 volume 30 no1)
SCHUT HENK STROEBE MARGARET
Challenges in evaluating adult bereavement services p5-9
ROLLS LIZ
Challenges in evaluating childhood bereavement services p10-15
NEWSOM C
Practitioners and researchers working together in an intervention
efficacy study: A fine example of synergy p16-20
ROBERTS AMANDA MCGILLOWAY SINEAD
Methodological and ethical aspects of evaluation research in
bereavement: A reflection p21-28
TRICKEY DAVID NUGUS DANNY
Evaluation of a therapeutic residential intervention for
traumatically bereaved children and young people p29-36
MCGUINESS BREFFNI FINUCANE NIAMH
Evaluating a creative arts bereavement support intervention:
innovation and rigour p37-42
Colin Murray Parkes, editor, has received (January 2012) the Sternberg Active Life Award from the Times newspaper.
5. The last posting referred to a literature review on bereavement published by the Department of Health in the UK. This was followed up by draft quality markers on spiritual and bereavement care
http://www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk/assets/downloads/Draft_Spiritual_Support_and_Bereavement_Care_Quality_Markers.pdf
In November, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK published End of Life Care quality markers and there is a section on bereavement which refers to the above documents:
http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qualitystandards/endoflifecare/CareAfterDeathBereavementSupport.jsp
This represents the most up-to-date UK guidance on bereavement issues.
6. Leaflets for bereaved people.
The following is a list from the Irish Hospice Foundation. It is interesting to see one written in Polish and another on how to cope at Christmas (though that will not be needed for another year!)
http://www.hospice-foundation.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=50
St Christopher’s has a wide range of leaflets available for patients, carers, families and bereaved people. There are six specifically on bereavement:
http://www.stchristophers.org.uk/patients/leaflets
7. I have come across a few items on the effect of losing a parent
in childhood in the last year. Here are the references;
BIANK NANCEE M WERNER-LIN ALLISON
Growing up with grief: Revisiting the death of a parent over the
life course
Omega 11 v63 no3 p271-290
FITZ JANE FINLAY ILORA
The burden of bereaved children in society. Paper delivered at
the Glasgow GAPC Conference, 2011
Wales Pall Care Strategy Impl Board 2011 22p
http://www.eapcnet.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=5MdRLB--lc0%3D&tabid=752
PARSONS SAMANTHA CHILDHOOD WELLBEING RESEARCH CENTRE
Long-term impact of childhood bereavement: Preliminary analysis
of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CWRC-00081-2011
London: CWRC 2011
PEARCE CAROLINE
Girl, interrupted: An exploration into the experience of grief
following the death of a mother in young women's narratives
Mortality 11 v16 no1 p35-53
TRACEY ANNE
Perpetual loss and pervasive grief: Daughters speak about the
death of their mother in childhood
BereaveCare 11 v30 no3 p17-24
8. Marshall F
Losing a parent. 2nd edition
Sheldon Press 2011
There are not many books for adults when their parents die. The book has 10
chapters and the ones that stand out as being especially pertinent to this
particular bereavement are: You and your dying parent: The abandoned child -
Inheritance – new possessions, new ideas: You and your remaining parent:
Getting on with your life. The author provides a variety of case studies, thus
capturing a range of experiences with which bereaved adult children
can identify. It is written in an accessible style and her last paragraph points
out that “ the lifting of grief is yet another kind of loss – you lose touch
with the emotions of grief that were a powerful link with your dead mother
or father and it is at this point that you begin to realise the value of your
experience in grief as the painful tribute paid to love.”
9. Agnew, A et al
Bereavement assessment practice in hospice settings: challenges
for palliative care social workers
British Journal of Social Work 2011 41 p111-130
A national survey, conducted in 2007, examined bereavement practice in
10 Marie Curie hospices across the UK. All hospices offered a bereavement
service but there was little standardisation across their sites. The study
highlighted ethical issues centred on documentation, user participation and
consent and found staff training was variable across the ten hospices. Some
of the differences are highlighted in various figures and tables. The findings
facilitated the development of a post-bereavement service model that was
implemented across Marie Curie Hospice Care. Although there are umbrella
hospice bodies in the UK, Marie Curie is one of the few hospice providers that
has a number of sites and this of course aids standardisation and is one
advantage of a large multi-site service.
10. Finally , a chapter worth noting. This is in a book edited by David Oliviere, Barbara Monroe and Sheila Payne, Death dying and social differences 2nd edition (Oxford University Press 2011). It is by Orla Keegan and is titled Bereavement – a world of difference(p207-204). This chapter succinctly describes different perspectives on bereavement, especially emphasising the concept of disenfranchised grief, the huge discrepancies in the idea of a good death across the world and the dilemmas associated with how best to support bereaved people. It has an extensive, interesting bibliography.
On 15 Februrary 2012 the Bereavement Research Forum will host their AGM and there are two interesting lectures as part of this event –a talk on Inherited genetic conditions and the implications for end of life care and bereavement by Professor Alison Metcalfe and Across generations of family members affected by Huntington’s Chorea by Professor Heather Skirton. Full details at
http://www.brforum.org.uk/2012/agm2012flyer.htm
Denise Brady St Christopher's Hospice library. Email. d.brady@stchristohers.org.uk
Grief and bereavement in contemporary society. Bridging research and practice
Routledge 2011
This book has contributions from 60 eminent writers (both clinicians and researchers) on grief and bereavement from 10 countries around the world.
It is has 31 chapters and is divided into 6 main sections – current conceptualisations of the grief process, contexts of grieving, challenges in bereavement, specific populations, specialised treatment modalities, grief in a global perspective. If you have read widely on bereavement issues, you will recognise many of the authors. If you have not, you will be introduced to a wide variety of contemporary perspectives. I have dipped into a number of chapters and I was especially struck by the chapter on “The remedy is not working” – seeking just and culturally conscientious practices in bereavement by Valarie Molaison et al. It describes and comments on the issue of death and grieving in a case study of a young African-American youth in a poor inner city area in the United States. It was challenging, engaging and sad. One would like to know how the young man viewed his counselling many years on. Does he even remember it? – or will the experience be of any use to him sometime in his future?
2.Wimpenny P, Costello J (eds)
Grief loss and bereavement. Evidence and practice for health and social care practitioners.
Routledge 2012
This book also has a broad remit though it is aimed at practitioners to a greater extent and most of the contributors are working in Scotland, either as practitioners or as researchers. It has sixteen chapters and is divided into 3 parts – 1) bereavement across the life span 2) contexts of bereavement and 3) education interventions and organisation of bereavement care. The context of bereavement section covers topics such as bereavement in primary care, perinatal bereavement, bereavement in care homes and bereavement and occupational health. There is an interesting array of figures, tables and boxes (26 in all) that summarise key concepts in current thinking on bereavement issues. It is a book aimed at specialists in bereavement work but also at health and social care professionals who need to further their understanding of bereavement issues in the context of their overall work. A poem by a poet based in Scotland called The dead is on the introductory page and it can be viewed on the poet’s website:
http://www.pauline-prior-pitt.com/poems.html
3.Wicks Robert J
The resilient clinician
Oxford University Press 2008
This is not newly published, nor is it specifically on bereavement. However, it is for counsellors and any professional involved in working closely with people who need help with emotional problems. It is written by a psychotherapist and the essence of the book is about how clinicians care for and know themselves so that they can continue to have the “space” to offer to others. It enables one to assess the extent to which one is currently reacting to stress in dealing with one’s clients. The first three chapters provide some idea of the approach: Sensing the dangers - chronic and acute secondary stress: Enhancing resiliency - strengthening one’s own self-care protocol: Replenishing the self-solitude, silence and mindfulness. The author places great emphasis on daily debriefing and concludes with some questions to aid reflection.
I especially liked one quote, reputedly from the Russian playwright (and doctor) Anton Chechov “Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s the day to day living that wears you out”.
4. Bereavement Care. A recent issue focussed on evaluation of
bereavement services – below are key references from this issue
(2011 volume 30 no1)
SCHUT HENK STROEBE MARGARET
Challenges in evaluating adult bereavement services p5-9
ROLLS LIZ
Challenges in evaluating childhood bereavement services p10-15
NEWSOM C
Practitioners and researchers working together in an intervention
efficacy study: A fine example of synergy p16-20
ROBERTS AMANDA MCGILLOWAY SINEAD
Methodological and ethical aspects of evaluation research in
bereavement: A reflection p21-28
TRICKEY DAVID NUGUS DANNY
Evaluation of a therapeutic residential intervention for
traumatically bereaved children and young people p29-36
MCGUINESS BREFFNI FINUCANE NIAMH
Evaluating a creative arts bereavement support intervention:
innovation and rigour p37-42
Colin Murray Parkes, editor, has received (January 2012) the Sternberg Active Life Award from the Times newspaper.
5. The last posting referred to a literature review on bereavement published by the Department of Health in the UK. This was followed up by draft quality markers on spiritual and bereavement care
http://www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk/assets/downloads/Draft_Spiritual_Support_and_Bereavement_Care_Quality_Markers.pdf
In November, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK published End of Life Care quality markers and there is a section on bereavement which refers to the above documents:
http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qualitystandards/endoflifecare/CareAfterDeathBereavementSupport.jsp
This represents the most up-to-date UK guidance on bereavement issues.
6. Leaflets for bereaved people.
The following is a list from the Irish Hospice Foundation. It is interesting to see one written in Polish and another on how to cope at Christmas (though that will not be needed for another year!)
http://www.hospice-foundation.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=50
St Christopher’s has a wide range of leaflets available for patients, carers, families and bereaved people. There are six specifically on bereavement:
http://www.stchristophers.org.uk/patients/leaflets
7. I have come across a few items on the effect of losing a parent
in childhood in the last year. Here are the references;
BIANK NANCEE M WERNER-LIN ALLISON
Growing up with grief: Revisiting the death of a parent over the
life course
Omega 11 v63 no3 p271-290
FITZ JANE FINLAY ILORA
The burden of bereaved children in society. Paper delivered at
the Glasgow GAPC Conference, 2011
Wales Pall Care Strategy Impl Board 2011 22p
http://www.eapcnet.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=5MdRLB--lc0%3D&tabid=752
PARSONS SAMANTHA CHILDHOOD WELLBEING RESEARCH CENTRE
Long-term impact of childhood bereavement: Preliminary analysis
of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CWRC-00081-2011
London: CWRC 2011
PEARCE CAROLINE
Girl, interrupted: An exploration into the experience of grief
following the death of a mother in young women's narratives
Mortality 11 v16 no1 p35-53
TRACEY ANNE
Perpetual loss and pervasive grief: Daughters speak about the
death of their mother in childhood
BereaveCare 11 v30 no3 p17-24
8. Marshall F
Losing a parent. 2nd edition
Sheldon Press 2011
There are not many books for adults when their parents die. The book has 10
chapters and the ones that stand out as being especially pertinent to this
particular bereavement are: You and your dying parent: The abandoned child -
Inheritance – new possessions, new ideas: You and your remaining parent:
Getting on with your life. The author provides a variety of case studies, thus
capturing a range of experiences with which bereaved adult children
can identify. It is written in an accessible style and her last paragraph points
out that “ the lifting of grief is yet another kind of loss – you lose touch
with the emotions of grief that were a powerful link with your dead mother
or father and it is at this point that you begin to realise the value of your
experience in grief as the painful tribute paid to love.”
9. Agnew, A et al
Bereavement assessment practice in hospice settings: challenges
for palliative care social workers
British Journal of Social Work 2011 41 p111-130
A national survey, conducted in 2007, examined bereavement practice in
10 Marie Curie hospices across the UK. All hospices offered a bereavement
service but there was little standardisation across their sites. The study
highlighted ethical issues centred on documentation, user participation and
consent and found staff training was variable across the ten hospices. Some
of the differences are highlighted in various figures and tables. The findings
facilitated the development of a post-bereavement service model that was
implemented across Marie Curie Hospice Care. Although there are umbrella
hospice bodies in the UK, Marie Curie is one of the few hospice providers that
has a number of sites and this of course aids standardisation and is one
advantage of a large multi-site service.
10. Finally , a chapter worth noting. This is in a book edited by David Oliviere, Barbara Monroe and Sheila Payne, Death dying and social differences 2nd edition (Oxford University Press 2011). It is by Orla Keegan and is titled Bereavement – a world of difference(p207-204). This chapter succinctly describes different perspectives on bereavement, especially emphasising the concept of disenfranchised grief, the huge discrepancies in the idea of a good death across the world and the dilemmas associated with how best to support bereaved people. It has an extensive, interesting bibliography.
On 15 Februrary 2012 the Bereavement Research Forum will host their AGM and there are two interesting lectures as part of this event –a talk on Inherited genetic conditions and the implications for end of life care and bereavement by Professor Alison Metcalfe and Across generations of family members affected by Huntington’s Chorea by Professor Heather Skirton. Full details at
http://www.brforum.org.uk/2012/agm2012flyer.htm
Denise Brady St Christopher's Hospice library. Email. d.brady@stchristohers.org.uk
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
4 online documents and 3 books
Arthur A et al.
Bereavement care services: a synthesis of the literature
Dept of Health 2011
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_123810.pdf
This is a very useful report that builds on the work of Wimpenny (blog April 2007). It brings together a range of research-based evidence that underpins existing provision and future service developments in England. It provides an overall synthesis of the major literature and categories this under four headings a) need for service provision b)current provision c)effectiveness of bereavement care interventions and services d)cost effectiveness. It examines service provision in terms of levels of intervention similar to NICE guidelines
It provides useful summaries of key literature and concludes with a number of recommendations for future practise and research.
Scottish Government Health Directorate.
Shaping bereavement care.
Scottish Government 2010
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/327965/0105922.pdf
This document was for consultation and its aim is principally to suggest policy changes that would enable quality care prior to death, at the time of death and immediately post-death for all dying people and their relatives. It sits a complementary doc
Shaping bereavement care – consultations responses
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/12/22154532/0
44 responses were received using a questionnaire. There are an interesting array of organisations that responded to the consultation and the current developments involve employing a coordinator, setting up some short –term projects and having a major conference following these initiatives – sometime towards the end of 2011.
http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2011_09.pdf
(24th February 2011)
Relf M, Machin L, Archer N
A study into implementing “Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care”.
Help the Hospices 2010
http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/hweb/get_Document.aspx?id=5265
This involved action research involving 3 British hospices and approximately 100 staff in those hospices and dealt with their responses to implementing bereavement needs assessment (BNA). The findings suggest that its implementation would a) have significant implications for organisations in terms of new procedures and protocols b)professional practitioners are challenged by the need to adopt and integrate new ways of thinking into practice. The original guidance is mentioned in May 2008 of this blog –and a book review provided lively debate between the reviewer and the authors. See below
Payne M. Book review. Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care. Bereavement Care 2008 v27 no3 p60
Relf M, Archer N, Machin L, Payne M. Book review discussion on "Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care". Bereavement Care 2009 v28 no1 p46-49
Graves Dodie
Talking with bereaved people. An approach for structured and sensitive communication.
Jessica Kingsley 2010
The author identifies six elements for establishing good communication with bereaved people. – a story, a relationship, a life to celebrate, a legacy for those left behind, a strategy for coping and a journey to undertake. Another chapter is about the exploration of difficult issues. A colleague has used this model in teaching a multidisciplinary group of palliative care professionals and has found it works well as an introduction to bereavement counselling. The author works at an English hospice.
Monroe B, Kraus F
Brief interventions with bereaved children.2nd edition
Oxford University Press 2010
Edited and partly written by St Christopher’s Hospice staff, this book provides a variety of interventions used by health professionals to help bereaved children. Some chapters provide an approach to dealing with these issues – other chapters focus on particular groups of children eg children with learning disablilities, very young children.
(Available from St Christopher’s Hospice bookshop. £29.95 plus postage d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk)
Buckle JL Fleming S
Parenting after the death fo a child. A practitioner’s guide
Routledge 2011
This Canadian study provides a detailed account of qualitative research with 10 bereaved parents, including 2 couples. Although the research as an in-depth evaluation of bereaved mothers and fathers separately, the impact of one spouse on another is accounted for in many of the themes. While is it is primarily a description of research, many verbatim extracts from the interviews are provided so it is a book that could be useful not only to practitioners but also to bereaved siblings and parents.
Bereavement care services: a synthesis of the literature
Dept of Health 2011
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_123810.pdf
This is a very useful report that builds on the work of Wimpenny (blog April 2007). It brings together a range of research-based evidence that underpins existing provision and future service developments in England. It provides an overall synthesis of the major literature and categories this under four headings a) need for service provision b)current provision c)effectiveness of bereavement care interventions and services d)cost effectiveness. It examines service provision in terms of levels of intervention similar to NICE guidelines
It provides useful summaries of key literature and concludes with a number of recommendations for future practise and research.
Scottish Government Health Directorate.
Shaping bereavement care.
Scottish Government 2010
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/327965/0105922.pdf
This document was for consultation and its aim is principally to suggest policy changes that would enable quality care prior to death, at the time of death and immediately post-death for all dying people and their relatives. It sits a complementary doc
Shaping bereavement care – consultations responses
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/12/22154532/0
44 responses were received using a questionnaire. There are an interesting array of organisations that responded to the consultation and the current developments involve employing a coordinator, setting up some short –term projects and having a major conference following these initiatives – sometime towards the end of 2011.
http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2011_09.pdf
(24th February 2011)
Relf M, Machin L, Archer N
A study into implementing “Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care”.
Help the Hospices 2010
http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/hweb/get_Document.aspx?id=5265
This involved action research involving 3 British hospices and approximately 100 staff in those hospices and dealt with their responses to implementing bereavement needs assessment (BNA). The findings suggest that its implementation would a) have significant implications for organisations in terms of new procedures and protocols b)professional practitioners are challenged by the need to adopt and integrate new ways of thinking into practice. The original guidance is mentioned in May 2008 of this blog –and a book review provided lively debate between the reviewer and the authors. See below
Payne M. Book review. Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care. Bereavement Care 2008 v27 no3 p60
Relf M, Archer N, Machin L, Payne M. Book review discussion on "Guidance for bereavement needs assessment in palliative care". Bereavement Care 2009 v28 no1 p46-49
Graves Dodie
Talking with bereaved people. An approach for structured and sensitive communication.
Jessica Kingsley 2010
The author identifies six elements for establishing good communication with bereaved people. – a story, a relationship, a life to celebrate, a legacy for those left behind, a strategy for coping and a journey to undertake. Another chapter is about the exploration of difficult issues. A colleague has used this model in teaching a multidisciplinary group of palliative care professionals and has found it works well as an introduction to bereavement counselling. The author works at an English hospice.
Monroe B, Kraus F
Brief interventions with bereaved children.2nd edition
Oxford University Press 2010
Edited and partly written by St Christopher’s Hospice staff, this book provides a variety of interventions used by health professionals to help bereaved children. Some chapters provide an approach to dealing with these issues – other chapters focus on particular groups of children eg children with learning disablilities, very young children.
(Available from St Christopher’s Hospice bookshop. £29.95 plus postage d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk)
Buckle JL Fleming S
Parenting after the death fo a child. A practitioner’s guide
Routledge 2011
This Canadian study provides a detailed account of qualitative research with 10 bereaved parents, including 2 couples. Although the research as an in-depth evaluation of bereaved mothers and fathers separately, the impact of one spouse on another is accounted for in many of the themes. While is it is primarily a description of research, many verbatim extracts from the interviews are provided so it is a book that could be useful not only to practitioners but also to bereaved siblings and parents.
Friday, July 30, 2010
CONFERENCES
I have examined the abstracts of 3 conferences in the past year that had a focus either on death and dying or on palliative care. I have found what seem to be the most relevant abstracts on bereavement issues. These are all short but provide some idea of research that may not yet be written up as articles. If you would like to read any of the abstracts contact me. Email: d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk or Phone 0044 20 8768 4660
1. European Association of Palliative Care Congress. 6th Research Congress Glasgow. June 2010
Palliative Medicine 2010 v24 no 4 Supplement.
Higginson IJ
Research methodology in bereavement: practical and scientific issues in conducting research in bereavement S18
Oyebode JR, Hassein H, Suhail, K, Aamodt-Leeper G
Influences of religion and culture on continuing bonds after bereavement
(study based in both England and Pakistan) S46
Fitz J, Finlay IG
The burden of bereaved children in society S95
Ellis JE, Lloyd-Williams M,
Supporting parentally bereaved children and their families: findings from a narrative study S142
Grenklo B et al
Did you talk about what was important with your dying parent? Feelings of guilt in bereaved teenage daughters S142-143
2. Abstracts of the 8th Palliative Care Congress Bournemouth March 2010
Palliative Medicine v24 no2 p202-252
Relf M, Machin, L, Archer N, Smale U, Rushton D.
Service development; experiences of implementing the guidance for bereavement needs assessment p248
Poultney J, Wiseman F, Waterhouse E, Faull C.
Why do bereaved carers agree to be involved in medical student education? p211
Relf M, Holly D, Diamond H, Llewelyn S, Bruce C
Aspects of bereavement support perceived as helpful by clients and their support workers p206.
3.9th International conference on death dying and disposal 9-12 September 2009Mortality v14 Supplement Sept 20009.
The abstracts in the journal are in alphabetical order by surname of first author.
Michael Ashby (Royal Hobart Hospital and University of Tasmania)
A snapshot of English grief and bereavement behaviour seen through two short scenes, 40 years apart, from the BBC radio series ‘The Archers’
George E. Dickinson and Heath C. Hoffmann (College of Charleston)
Roadside memorial policies in the United States: a place of identity
for a highway fatality
Vanessa Fredericks (Macquarie University)
Politics and mourning: the subject on trial
Christina Marsden Gillis (University of California, Berkeley)
Seeing and feeling differently: place, art and consolation
Tim Hutchings (Durham University)
Wiring death: dying, grieving and remembering on the internet
Maggie Jackson (University of Teesside)
My father’s hand: an exploration of memory and identity
Aliki Karapliagou (University of Bath)
Bereavement in trauma diasporas
Michele Knight (University of Sydney)
From grief’s Cavern come the voices of the voiceless: bereavement, grief and post-death contact
Vanessa Lockyer-Stevens (Bournemouth University)
Nurse interaction with families following sudden death of their child in
intensive care: an interpretive approach
Samantha Murphy (University of Westminster)
Stillbirth and gender: supporting the social construction of grief
Colin Murray Parkes (St. Christopher’s Hospice, London)
Love and loss: the roots of grief and its complications
Anna Petersson (Lund University)
Individual expression and grief work
Pamela Roberts, Talina Villao, Hortencia Romero and Rozana Ceballos
(California State University, Long Beach)
Travelling tributes: car memorials in Southern California
Liz Rolls (Lancaster University)
Emotional work within UK childhood bereavement services
Alice Scarlin (Durham University)
Harry Potter: death, grief and identity
Caroline Simone (University of Derby)
The liminality of loss: bridging the gap
Margaret Souza (Empire State College)
Bereavement: emotional component of changed roles
Josefine Speyer and Mary Murray
(Natural Death Centre; Massey University)
Grace in grieving: psycho-spiritual transformation through bereavement
M. Sque*, T. Long*, J. Macleod-Clark* and S. Payne{
(*University of Southampton; {Lancaster University)
Gift of life or sacrifice: is organ donation a blessing or burden for bereaved families
Darach Turley and Stephanie O’Donohoe
(Dublin City University; University of Edinburgh)
The loss adjuster: the year of magical thinking and the role of consumption
in meaning reconstruction
Christine Valentine (University of Bath)
Emotion, identity and the good death in the narratives of bereaved Japanese people
1. European Association of Palliative Care Congress. 6th Research Congress Glasgow. June 2010
Palliative Medicine 2010 v24 no 4 Supplement.
Higginson IJ
Research methodology in bereavement: practical and scientific issues in conducting research in bereavement S18
Oyebode JR, Hassein H, Suhail, K, Aamodt-Leeper G
Influences of religion and culture on continuing bonds after bereavement
(study based in both England and Pakistan) S46
Fitz J, Finlay IG
The burden of bereaved children in society S95
Ellis JE, Lloyd-Williams M,
Supporting parentally bereaved children and their families: findings from a narrative study S142
Grenklo B et al
Did you talk about what was important with your dying parent? Feelings of guilt in bereaved teenage daughters S142-143
2. Abstracts of the 8th Palliative Care Congress Bournemouth March 2010
Palliative Medicine v24 no2 p202-252
Relf M, Machin, L, Archer N, Smale U, Rushton D.
Service development; experiences of implementing the guidance for bereavement needs assessment p248
Poultney J, Wiseman F, Waterhouse E, Faull C.
Why do bereaved carers agree to be involved in medical student education? p211
Relf M, Holly D, Diamond H, Llewelyn S, Bruce C
Aspects of bereavement support perceived as helpful by clients and their support workers p206.
3.9th International conference on death dying and disposal 9-12 September 2009Mortality v14 Supplement Sept 20009.
The abstracts in the journal are in alphabetical order by surname of first author.
Michael Ashby (Royal Hobart Hospital and University of Tasmania)
A snapshot of English grief and bereavement behaviour seen through two short scenes, 40 years apart, from the BBC radio series ‘The Archers’
George E. Dickinson and Heath C. Hoffmann (College of Charleston)
Roadside memorial policies in the United States: a place of identity
for a highway fatality
Vanessa Fredericks (Macquarie University)
Politics and mourning: the subject on trial
Christina Marsden Gillis (University of California, Berkeley)
Seeing and feeling differently: place, art and consolation
Tim Hutchings (Durham University)
Wiring death: dying, grieving and remembering on the internet
Maggie Jackson (University of Teesside)
My father’s hand: an exploration of memory and identity
Aliki Karapliagou (University of Bath)
Bereavement in trauma diasporas
Michele Knight (University of Sydney)
From grief’s Cavern come the voices of the voiceless: bereavement, grief and post-death contact
Vanessa Lockyer-Stevens (Bournemouth University)
Nurse interaction with families following sudden death of their child in
intensive care: an interpretive approach
Samantha Murphy (University of Westminster)
Stillbirth and gender: supporting the social construction of grief
Colin Murray Parkes (St. Christopher’s Hospice, London)
Love and loss: the roots of grief and its complications
Anna Petersson (Lund University)
Individual expression and grief work
Pamela Roberts, Talina Villao, Hortencia Romero and Rozana Ceballos
(California State University, Long Beach)
Travelling tributes: car memorials in Southern California
Liz Rolls (Lancaster University)
Emotional work within UK childhood bereavement services
Alice Scarlin (Durham University)
Harry Potter: death, grief and identity
Caroline Simone (University of Derby)
The liminality of loss: bridging the gap
Margaret Souza (Empire State College)
Bereavement: emotional component of changed roles
Josefine Speyer and Mary Murray
(Natural Death Centre; Massey University)
Grace in grieving: psycho-spiritual transformation through bereavement
M. Sque*, T. Long*, J. Macleod-Clark* and S. Payne{
(*University of Southampton; {Lancaster University)
Gift of life or sacrifice: is organ donation a blessing or burden for bereaved families
Darach Turley and Stephanie O’Donohoe
(Dublin City University; University of Edinburgh)
The loss adjuster: the year of magical thinking and the role of consumption
in meaning reconstruction
Christine Valentine (University of Bath)
Emotion, identity and the good death in the narratives of bereaved Japanese people
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The 4th editions of two classic texts
Parkes Colin Murray, Prigerson Holly G
Bereavement. Studies of grief in adult life. 4th edition
Routledge 2010.
In this book the author has broadened the content and involved a second author who is an expert on complicated grief. It is a text for health professionals but also for bereaved people.
Contents include:
Bowlby, Foreword to the First Edition. Lifton, Foreword to the Fourth Edition. Acknowledgements. Introduction. The Cost of Commitment. The Broken Heart. Trauma. Attachment and Loss. Mitigation. Anger and Guilt. Changing the Assumptive World. Complicated Grief. Determinants of Grief I: Kinship, Gender and Age. Determinants of Grief II: Mode of Death. Determinants of Grief III: Personal Vulnerability. Determinants of Grief IV: Social, Religious and Cultural Influences. Helping the Bereaved I: Bereavement Support – History and Evaluation. Helping the Bereaved II: Types of Help for Types of Problem. Helping the Bereaved III: Sources of Help. Reactions to Other Types of Loss. Disasters. Appendices. Organisation in the UK and USA Offering Help to Bereaved People. Recommended Further Reading. References
Worden William J.
Grief Counselling and grief therapy. A handbook for the mental health practitioner. 4th edition 2010
The fourth edition of this textbook has just been published and Worden continues to add information on new theories of grief and bereavement.
Contents include:
Attachment, Loss, and the Experience of Grief. Understanding the Mourning Process. The Mourning Process: Mediators of Mourning. Grief Counselling: Facilitating Uncomplicated Grief. Abnormal Grief Reactions: Complicated Mourning. Grief Therapy: Resolving Complicated Mourning. Grieving Special Types of Losses. Grief and Family Systems. The Counsellor's Own Grief. Training for Grief Counselling
Bereavement. Studies of grief in adult life. 4th edition
Routledge 2010.
In this book the author has broadened the content and involved a second author who is an expert on complicated grief. It is a text for health professionals but also for bereaved people.
Contents include:
Bowlby, Foreword to the First Edition. Lifton, Foreword to the Fourth Edition. Acknowledgements. Introduction. The Cost of Commitment. The Broken Heart. Trauma. Attachment and Loss. Mitigation. Anger and Guilt. Changing the Assumptive World. Complicated Grief. Determinants of Grief I: Kinship, Gender and Age. Determinants of Grief II: Mode of Death. Determinants of Grief III: Personal Vulnerability. Determinants of Grief IV: Social, Religious and Cultural Influences. Helping the Bereaved I: Bereavement Support – History and Evaluation. Helping the Bereaved II: Types of Help for Types of Problem. Helping the Bereaved III: Sources of Help. Reactions to Other Types of Loss. Disasters. Appendices. Organisation in the UK and USA Offering Help to Bereaved People. Recommended Further Reading. References
Worden William J.
Grief Counselling and grief therapy. A handbook for the mental health practitioner. 4th edition 2010
The fourth edition of this textbook has just been published and Worden continues to add information on new theories of grief and bereavement.
Contents include:
Attachment, Loss, and the Experience of Grief. Understanding the Mourning Process. The Mourning Process: Mediators of Mourning. Grief Counselling: Facilitating Uncomplicated Grief. Abnormal Grief Reactions: Complicated Mourning. Grief Therapy: Resolving Complicated Mourning. Grieving Special Types of Losses. Grief and Family Systems. The Counsellor's Own Grief. Training for Grief Counselling
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Report on a conference - ongoing projects in bereavement care in
hospices in the UK
Help the Hospices (a national organisation for hospice care in the UK) recently held their biennial conference in Harrogate. Two aspects of the conference are worth bringing to your attention.
Firstly:
There was a session on organisational challenges for today and tomorrow in delivering bereavement care. This was by Una Smale, Nikki Archer and Sharon Cornford.
Linda Machin delivered a presentation on service development: experiences of taking the “guidance for bereavement needs assessment” into practice.
Patsy Way delivered a talk on working with a young child in Candle, the child bereavement service at St Christopher’s Hospice.
These presentations are available by keying in the authors’ surname on the query box on this page:
http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/our-services/running-your-hospice/education-training/2009conference/programme/
Secondly:
The following presentations were in poster form:
Promoting excellence in the training of bereavement volunteers
Hilary Minter, Hartlepool and District Hospice, Hartlepool
Ann French, University of Teeside, Middlesborough
Effective positive change with bereaved service users in a palliative care setting
Audrey Agnew, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Belfast
Joe Duffy, Department of Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast
COSTAL – adult group therapy programme following bereavement
Rebekah Clitherow, Susan Salt. Trinity Hospice and Palliative Care Services, Blackpool
Children and young people’s bereavement link project
Rebekah Clitherow, Susan Salt. Trinity Hospice and Palliative Care Services, Blackpool
Living with grief – a series of meetings for people who have been bereaved
Smale Una, Simon Spence, Highland Hospice, Inverness.
The conference took place in Novemberr 2009 at Harrogate Conference Centre. It is interesting to see some documentation on the variety of projects taking place in the UK in bereavement care.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
6 items - 6 months!
Bereavement Care. The journal
This journal is now published by Taylor and Francis. It still retains its links with CRUSE. It continues to be reasonably priced and its editor, Colin Murrary Parkes, provides continuity. However, for the fist time it is now also possible to have an online subscription.
http://www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk/ber_care.htm
Macmillan Cancer Support
There are two booklets available from Macmillan Cancer Support for care homes that would like to provide some training for their staff in bereavement care. They can either be ordered in print form or are available for download free of charge:
http://be.macmillan.org.uk/be/s-206-learning-resources-and-courses.aspx
If there is anything I can do….
Doughty Caroline
White Ladder Press 2007
This is written for those who would like to help someone who has been recently bereaved. It is particularly aimed at young parents with children and provides many concrete suggestions on how one might be able to them. The author is herself an expert as she has had to live through this experience and she has done so with the help of many people who have also been widowed. She met many of them through the WAY foundation, a support group for people widowed under 50. I think this is a refreshing book as it closely involves both the bereaved and those who have helped them.
http://www.wayfoundation.org.uk/index.htm
National Council for Palliative Care
National survey of patient activity data for specialist palliative care services.
MDS full report for the year 2007-2008.
NCPC (Dec) 2008
This is an annual publication by the National Council for Palliative Care and collates information on palliative care services in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
There is a section in this document on bereavement services. It states that 278 bereavement services were listed in the Hospice Directory in this area in 2008. Data was received from 171 services. The type of contact was given by 56% services and 70% of contacts were either in the home, or as individual counselling. The main staff member for each of the contacts was given by half of all services and this showed that nearly half of all contacts were with a social worker or counsellor, 5% with a CNS and a third with a volunteer. A table on the services is also provided. This shows the actual and the mean number of clients seen, the number of contacts, contacts per client, the contact type, the staff type for each contact (eg social worker, clinical nurse specialist or volunteer) and the number of telephone calls that had been noted.
Financial Implications of Death of a Partner
by Corden, A., Hirst, M. and Nice, K.
Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, 2008
This research report investigates the economic and financial consequences of bereavement for a surviving spouse or partner and their household, using a mixed methods, prospective design. The study involves a quantitative element based on longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey, and a qualitative element comprising personal interviews with people at different life stages whose partner has died.
http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/1148/
Evaluation of a bereavement evening service in a London hospice
Heal, Rosanna, Hartley Nigel.
Abstracts of the 11th Congress of the EAPC, Vienna 2009. p62.
Bereaved relatives are invited by a London hospice to attend an evening event about 3 months after the death of a patient. This consists of a) a talk by a member of staff at the hospice on common responses to bereavement b) group discussion.
The events take place each month and all those who attended the meetings over a 5 months period (n=105) and all those who had been invited to the meetings but did not attend (n=436) were asked to complete a questionnaire.
Overall the bereavement evenings were valued by respondents who participated and even those who did not attend appreciated being invited, seeing it as further evidence of the care extended to them by the hospice.
(The book by Caroline Doughty is available from the bookshop at St Christopher’s Hospice and the full report of the MDS data is in the library at St Christopher’s Hospice. A fuller abstract by Rosanna Heal is also available from the library. Contact me if you would like further details or have any other literature queries regarding bereavement. d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk or ph: 020 8768 4660)
This journal is now published by Taylor and Francis. It still retains its links with CRUSE. It continues to be reasonably priced and its editor, Colin Murrary Parkes, provides continuity. However, for the fist time it is now also possible to have an online subscription.
http://www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk/ber_care.htm
Macmillan Cancer Support
There are two booklets available from Macmillan Cancer Support for care homes that would like to provide some training for their staff in bereavement care. They can either be ordered in print form or are available for download free of charge:
http://be.macmillan.org.uk/be/s-206-learning-resources-and-courses.aspx
If there is anything I can do….
Doughty Caroline
White Ladder Press 2007
This is written for those who would like to help someone who has been recently bereaved. It is particularly aimed at young parents with children and provides many concrete suggestions on how one might be able to them. The author is herself an expert as she has had to live through this experience and she has done so with the help of many people who have also been widowed. She met many of them through the WAY foundation, a support group for people widowed under 50. I think this is a refreshing book as it closely involves both the bereaved and those who have helped them.
http://www.wayfoundation.org.uk/index.htm
National Council for Palliative Care
National survey of patient activity data for specialist palliative care services.
MDS full report for the year 2007-2008.
NCPC (Dec) 2008
This is an annual publication by the National Council for Palliative Care and collates information on palliative care services in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
There is a section in this document on bereavement services. It states that 278 bereavement services were listed in the Hospice Directory in this area in 2008. Data was received from 171 services. The type of contact was given by 56% services and 70% of contacts were either in the home, or as individual counselling. The main staff member for each of the contacts was given by half of all services and this showed that nearly half of all contacts were with a social worker or counsellor, 5% with a CNS and a third with a volunteer. A table on the services is also provided. This shows the actual and the mean number of clients seen, the number of contacts, contacts per client, the contact type, the staff type for each contact (eg social worker, clinical nurse specialist or volunteer) and the number of telephone calls that had been noted.
Financial Implications of Death of a Partner
by Corden, A., Hirst, M. and Nice, K.
Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, 2008
This research report investigates the economic and financial consequences of bereavement for a surviving spouse or partner and their household, using a mixed methods, prospective design. The study involves a quantitative element based on longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey, and a qualitative element comprising personal interviews with people at different life stages whose partner has died.
http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/1148/
Evaluation of a bereavement evening service in a London hospice
Heal, Rosanna, Hartley Nigel.
Abstracts of the 11th Congress of the EAPC, Vienna 2009. p62.
Bereaved relatives are invited by a London hospice to attend an evening event about 3 months after the death of a patient. This consists of a) a talk by a member of staff at the hospice on common responses to bereavement b) group discussion.
The events take place each month and all those who attended the meetings over a 5 months period (n=105) and all those who had been invited to the meetings but did not attend (n=436) were asked to complete a questionnaire.
Overall the bereavement evenings were valued by respondents who participated and even those who did not attend appreciated being invited, seeing it as further evidence of the care extended to them by the hospice.
(The book by Caroline Doughty is available from the bookshop at St Christopher’s Hospice and the full report of the MDS data is in the library at St Christopher’s Hospice. A fuller abstract by Rosanna Heal is also available from the library. Contact me if you would like further details or have any other literature queries regarding bereavement. d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk or ph: 020 8768 4660)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
One key text and one themed journal issue:
BOOK
Stroebe M, Hansson RO, Schut H, Stroebe W (eds)
Handbook of bereavement research and practice. Advances in theory and intervention.
American Psychological Association 2008
The table of contents, which includes many renowned researchers in this area, is available from:
http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4318045&toc=yes
This is almost the equivalent of the the third edition of an edited book published by most of these authors. However, each title has had a slightly different name. The first was Handbook of bereavement (Cambridge University Press 1993), and the second was Handbook of bereavement research. Consequences, coping and care (American Psychological Association 2001)
THEMED JOURNAL ISSUE
One of our doctors spotted a themed issue on bereavement in Psychiatric Annals. It is on bereavement-related depression. (October 2008). Details are available at
http://www.psychiatricannalsonline.com/view.asp?rid=32100
(The book is in the bookshop of St Christopher’s Hospice. We offer a copying service for articles. Email me: d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk
Stroebe M, Hansson RO, Schut H, Stroebe W (eds)
Handbook of bereavement research and practice. Advances in theory and intervention.
American Psychological Association 2008
The table of contents, which includes many renowned researchers in this area, is available from:
http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4318045&toc=yes
This is almost the equivalent of the the third edition of an edited book published by most of these authors. However, each title has had a slightly different name. The first was Handbook of bereavement (Cambridge University Press 1993), and the second was Handbook of bereavement research. Consequences, coping and care (American Psychological Association 2001)
THEMED JOURNAL ISSUE
One of our doctors spotted a themed issue on bereavement in Psychiatric Annals. It is on bereavement-related depression. (October 2008). Details are available at
http://www.psychiatricannalsonline.com/view.asp?rid=32100
(The book is in the bookshop of St Christopher’s Hospice. We offer a copying service for articles. Email me: d.brady@stchristophers.org.uk
