Caregiving / HospiceMental Health Resource
Our goal is to bring people together around the issues of addictions by providing concise, up-to-date information and a meeting place for patients, their friends and families, and professionals who offer pathways to recovery. www.psyweb.com
Participate in a Research Study
If you have experienced the death of a loved one in the past ten years and are over eighteen years old, we invite you to participate in a brief online study of the ways that individuals make sense of and find meaning in loss. All participants will be entered in a raffle to win one of two $50 gift certificates to Amazon.com.
Your participation will contribute to a better understanding of grief and loss. The researchers, Dr. Brian Vandenberg, and Rachel Hibberd, are most grateful for your time and help in completing the study. If you have any questions, please e-mail rhibberd@umsl.edu. The study has been approved by the Institutional Review board of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Click here to participate:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2DTKDZ9
Book Corner
Seasons of Solace: A Story of Healing through Photos and Poems [Hardcover]
In shock after her husband was killed by a drunk driver while living in Thailand, Janelle Shantz Hertzler began searching for a way through the pain. Her struggle to make sense of her loss and find peace resulted in this moving collection. Told through heartfelt poetry and inspiring photography, Seasons of Solace expresses the spiritual journey of a grieving woman moving toward acceptance.
Word Cloud
Funeral Wreaths
Caregiving / Hospice
Grief is never easy but for the caregiver, who has witnessed the slow deterioration in health and subsequent loss of independence of someone they loved, grieving can be extra difficult. Even though the death may have been anticipated, you may not have anticipated the overwhelming emotions it has brought. Although a long term illness affords us the opportunity to say our goodbyes, in the end, the death is no less painful.
I've shown our girls how to live; now I will show them how to die. ~Robin Carter, quoting his now deceased wife on her learning of her terminal pancreatic cancer. Death will level the best of us, and apart from Christ, it does have the better of us, certainly from the sense of the physical life.
Julia sits across from me in my office. Her face reflects the strain she has been under for the last several weeks: her mother is dying. She is exhausted.
Lifestyle Behaviors and the Risk of Death According to the Center for Disease Control in the United States, the life expectancy for American men is 75 (74.5) and women is 80 (79.9). The top killers for men and top killers for women are pretty similar. Here's the list. You may be surprised.
June 3 is National Cancer Survivors Day. It is a time of celebrating those who have faced cancer and survived. There are over a hundred new cases of cancer in children expected this year for Arkansas alone. Early detection of cancer gives the best odds of beating the disease.
I once attended a seminar on death and dying given by Barbara Karnes, RN, who was then the Director of Hospice and Home Health agencies at Olathe Medical Center in Kansas. Her presentation was compassionate and insightful, based on her years of experience working with the dying, and her eloquence moved me. As I listened to her speak, she said something that raised the hairs on the back of my neck, a profound statement of truth I have never forgotten. She said, “People don’t just die.” She went on to explain that there are only two ways people die: suddenly, as in the case of a tragic accident, or when they decide to let go. For the majority of us, we will decide when to die.
“I am a traveler on the journey from one life to the next, and I need a place where I can be welcomed and looked after and cared for and be myself on that journey.” So spoke a dying patient to Dr. Cicely Saunders, founder of St. Christopher’s Hospice in London, England.
Oftentimes when someone is diagnosed with a chronic illness it changes their entire life. What has happened from one day to the next? What happened between yesterday and today when you received the dreaded news? The label you were given changes everything. Why does that label have so much power?
Living with a chronic illness has a profound impact on one’s life and creates a lot of grief in response to the losses it imposes on our lives. There are wide arrays of potential life interruptions and psychological changes one will go through when dealing with their illness. Our illness is erratic and unpredictable and requires constant readjusting. We are likely to endure multiple losses that may include the loss of control and personal power, which is an important contributor to self- esteem, as well as loss of independence, loss of identity, loss of financial status and loss of one’s customary lifestyle. In addition to these, we may also have to face the possible relinquishing of our hopes and dreams and face the fear of more ongoing losses. Changing roles in family, work and social situations that result from a person’s illness also can create additional adjustment problems for everyone involved. Family members and partners are likely to be experiencing the same feelings as we are, as well as their own feelings as to how the illness is impacting their life. If these issues are not worked out, then relationships may fall apart and leave us with another loss.
