Hospice of Visiting Nurse Service
Grief Education
"There are two choices when a loved one dies - to live in grief, remorse, and guilt
covered thinly by a facade; or to face those feelings, work them through, and emerge
with an acceptance of death and a commitment to living"
Edith Mize, R.N. in Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's
DEATH: THE FINAL STAGE OF GROWTH (1975)
THE PROCESS OF GRIEVING IS TO CREATE A NEW NORMAL LIFE
Grieving is the process of creating a new normal life. This is hard and painful
work for most people. Grief is not a fixable problem; it is about creating new possibilities.
Death brings with it struggles and questions. These include making sense of that
which makes no sense, surviving the emptiness within a broken heart and rebuilding
a life. When we cannot answer these questions, we feel uncomfortable. The Hospice
Bereavement Support Staff support this process of creating a new normal life. It
is important to deal with the whole picture of surviving and someday even being
able to reinvest in life again.
GRIEF:
is the emotional reaction to all types of loss. It is an emotional upheaval resulting
from loss.
MOURNING:
is the expression of grief or that emotional upheaval. It is the process we utilize
to adapt and adjust our lives to the loss. It is the process of taking what is inside
and bringing it outside. It includes three sets of operations, each with its own
particular focus.
Mourning goes on forever: Acute grief does not. Grief is to mourning what infancy
is to childhood.
SYMPTOMS OF GRIEF
BEHAVIOR SYMPTOMS
- Change of appetite
- Crying uncontrollably
- Change in sleep patterns
- Extremes in behavior changes
- Verbal attacks
THOUGHT PATTERNS
- Confusion
- Difficulty making decisions
- Preoccupation with illness, death, or funeral
- Absent-mindedness
- Disbelief Inability to concentrate
FEELINGS
- Intense level of feelings
- Loneliness
- Anxiety
- Sadness
- Very sudden mood swings
- Feeling unreal
- Helplessness
- Disconnected
- Fear
- Guilt
- Relief
PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Tightness in throat
- Muscle weakness
- Tightness in chest
- Heaviness of body
- Empty feeling in body
- Shortness of breath
Our Hospice Care Center offers suOur Hospice Care Center offers support programs to help you and your loved ones
during a time of need. Please visit our
Grief Support Programs
page to learn more about the healthy grieving process and how to gain
support during the time of mourning.
Grief Brochures
Bereavement Newsletter
*Would you like to be added to the mailing list? Would you like a past issue of
Bereavement Support? Email Kelly Ward-Smith, Communications Specialist, at kward@vnsa.com
or call 330-745-1601, Ext. 6410.
If you would like to receive more information about our Bereavement Support
Program, please contact our ="HyperLink1" runat="server" NavigateUrl="mailto:RSheppard@vnsa.com">Bereavement Coordinator:
Rochelle Sheppard, MA, LPCC-S, Bereavement and Spiritual Services Coordinator
1-800-335-1455
330-668-4662