Loss and Grief Issues for Caregivers

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Loss and Grief Issuesfor Caregivers
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Caregiver Losses

• Job/Career
• Home
• Relationships

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Ambiguous Loss

• Loss not easily explained
• Vague and uncertain issues
• Physical presence with mental absence
• Variety of causes
• No rituals

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Strategies

• Acknowledge losses
• Find time for others
• Be realistic
• Laugh
• Forgive self
• Forgive others

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Caregiver Grief

• Is an emotional response to loss
• Begins anytime
• Is different for each person
• Is necessary

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Types of Grief

• Anticipatory
• Incomplete
• Disenfranchised
• Stifled
• Morbid
• Normal

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Behaviors AttitudesCommon in Normal Grief

• Shock, numbness, denial
• Disorganization
• Anger, frustration and rage
• Helplessness and fear
• Guilt and regret
• Relief
• Sadness, disbelief
• Lower resistance to illness
• Fatigue

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Discussion

• How do you acknowledge losses in your family?
• How does your community give support when a loss
  occurs? A death?
• Do men and women grieve differently?

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Depression or Grief Response

• Sadness
• Tearfulness
• Sleep Problems
• Appetite Changes
• Weight Changes

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Grief or depression?

• Grief
• Moves toward recovery
• Feels emotional pain and guilt
• related to the loss
• Allows laughter
• Accepts support
• Depression
• Stuck in sadness
• Increasingly unable to function
• Expresses helplessness, hopelessness, pessimism
  and emptiness
• No longer enjoys favorite activities
• May resist help and support

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Strategies

• Understand seriousness of the illness
• Come to terms with death
• Share the relationship meaning
• Bring closure to difficult past
• Say goodbye when appropriate
• Seek solitude
• Allow intense feelings
• Maintain health and friendships
• Gather memories
• Journal
• Accept social support

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Benefits of Successful Grieving

• Increased feelings of strength and security
• Deeper self-understanding
• Greater capacity to understand others
• Enriched perspective of reality