grief and bereavement in the adult palliative care setting

3

Click here to load reader

Upload: john

Post on 16-Feb-2017

218 views

Category:

Documents


4 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Grief and bereavement in the adult palliative care setting

This article was downloaded by: [The University Of Melbourne Libraries]On: 11 October 2014, At: 16:58Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Mortality: Promoting theinterdisciplinary study of death anddyingPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cmrt20

Grief and bereavement in the adultpalliative care settingJohn Wilsonab

a Saint Catherine’s Hospice, Scarborough, UKb York St. John UniversityPublished online: 18 Jun 2014.

To cite this article: John Wilson (2014) Grief and bereavement in the adult palliative caresetting, Mortality: Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying, 19:3, 318-319, DOI:10.1080/13576275.2014.929568

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2014.929568

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Grief and bereavement in the adult palliative care setting

Book Reviews

Grief and bereavement in the adult palliative care setting, by E. Alessandra

Strada, New York, Oxford University Press, 2013, 118 pp., $34.99 (paperback), ISBN

978-0-19-976892-9

Firmly and convincingly evidence-based, this succinct book is a useful resource for

those working with death and dying. It paints a balanced picture of research

findings in the field of loss and grief, coloured with the author’s considerable

experience of working with dying patients and their families. Her position is that all

palliative care professionals should learn to recognise the nature and variety of grief

reactions and grieving styles, so as to provide effective support. She values the dif-

fering roles and patient relationships within properly coordinated cross-disciplinary

teams, including responsibility for knowing when to refer to grief specialists. Two

messages from the book come as a breath of fresh air; the author’s belief that grief

education should be a feature of a family’s palliative care, and her view that the

patient should be supported therapeutically throughout the clinical needs assessment

as part of a process of matching therapeutic intervention to individual need. The

author distinguishes between grief counselling for normal grief and grief-focused

psychotherapy for complicated grief: distinctions not all bereavement support

practitioners will concur with, particularly those still to be convinced of the reality

of complicated grief. The penultimate chapter is a well-researched account of

pharmacological interventions, and the book concludes with an exhortation for clini-

cian self-care.

In spite of its excellent content and important messages, the book is let down by

some features of the design. On the positive side, chapters are headed with focus

points to provide a clear view of what the author wishes to communicate. Key points

made in each chapter are summarised in clearly understandable tables. Less helpful

are the densely packed words, small font and limited white space, which could make

reading this book a chore, particularly for those initially unconvinced of its value.

Even indenting the case studies and setting them in a different font would have

helped. In mitigation, the position of the page numbers and the vertical headers make

it very easy to thumb through.

The author uses short and to-the-point sentence structure. The case studies can

only have been constructed by meticulous and sensitive observation, yet it took

empathic reading between the lines to tease out the author’s compassion for her

patients. These brief glimpses into her caring practice easily get lost in a style that is so

unremittingly clinical. For example, a particularly jarring sentence on page 32 describes

a baby ‘with a congenital heart defect deemed incompatible with survival’. The

author’s stated intention is to provide a tool for all palliative care providers, yet some

Mortality, 2014

Vol. 19, No. 3, 318–321

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

The

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

elbo

urne

Lib

rari

es]

at 1

6:58

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Page 3: Grief and bereavement in the adult palliative care setting

team members may be disenfranchised by the clinical, rather than inspirational style.

In a work with such potential, this seems a shame.

John Wilson

Saint Catherine’s Hospice, Scarborough, UK

York St. John University

© John Wilson

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2014.929568

Death, dying, and social differences (2nd edition), edited by David Oliviere,

Barbara Monroe and Sheila Payne, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, 226 pp.,

£36.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-19-959929-5

If you want to be challenged to think seriously about the diversity and disparity of

dying experiences, read this volume. Making a contribution to examining ‘the social

aspects of palliative care’ (p. 3) it explores the complex relationships between structural

inequality and barriers to receiving support at the end of life. At times it makes for

sobering reading, offering a collection of insightful, clearly evidenced and cogently

argued examples of what it is like to exist at the margins and to die there. Although the

primary audience is clearly those involved in palliative care (mainly practitioners but

also policy-makers and researchers), the book is essentially an appraisal of social justice

at the end of life and would engage anyone with an interest in addressing inequality –

professionally, intellectually or personally.

Divided into two clear parts, Part 1 offers a contextual backdrop for the more spe-

cific examples in Part 2 which explore the situation of particular disadvantaged social

groups. In Part 1, the reader is introduced to key themes such as geography and space,

communication, poverty, social relationships and embracing diversity. Then, if so

inclined, they can read on and consider how these themes reoccur and interplay with

the experiences described in Part 2. For instance, in Turner and Payne’s chapter on

palliative care for prisoners, the spatial and geographical needs of patients are consid-

ered. Readers also revisit the issue of communication in Tuffery-Wijne’s discussion

about individuals with intellectual disabilities, and in another chapter by Dodds on the

experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. A useful aspect of the way this text is

structured is that any of these chapters remain substantively informative if read in isola-

tion. Whilst in Part 2, there is only space to provide ‘snap shots’ of different social

groups, taken together these chapters provide a comprehensive overview which inter-

weaves UK and international perspectives of disadvantage. Certainly, there is enough

here to introduce the reader to the key issues facing a number of different groups, with

each chapter in Part 2 providing contextual information (historical, policy, demo-

graphic) which renders the more specific points about end of life meaningful.

Unfortunately, what this text has to say is just as relevant presently as when the title

was first published, in 2004. Resonating across the pages is recognition of the complex-

ity of translating aspirations in policy around high-quality end-of-life care for all (End

of Life Care Strategy, 2008) into lived experiences. And whilst as the editors acknowl-

edge, the volume poses more questions than it does answers, to try and distil some of

Book Reviews 319

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

The

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

elbo

urne

Lib

rari

es]

at 1

6:58

11

Oct

ober

201

4