Unit 21: Supporting Significant Life Events Assignment Sample

Unit 21: Supporting Significant Life Events

Introduction of analysis of the impact that significant life events have on individuals.

The purpose of this assignment is to assist the reader in understanding the positive and negative impacts of significant life events effects on individuals. Explaining how the body responds to grief and physical and psychological processes at the time of bereavement as well as determining the support that can be available through organisations and family. This essay will also provide a clear understanding of policies, procedures and networks that support the individuals. Evaluating the suitability of external sources. A provide support within this circumstance. Finally, it will reflect on my contribution and self-contribution and self-contribution on how to improve the support that is given by organisations to individuals from significant life events.

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Definition of Significant Life Events

Significant life events are those events that occur in the lifespan of an individual without any prior affirmation or eventuality. Significant life events impact on lifestyles and mental or emotional state of mind of an individual empirically. Significant life events impact positively and negatively towards the individuals. The positive impact can be reflected as alterations in behaviours and personal preferences of the individual. Examples of positive impacts on an individual may be marriage, professional achievements, birth of a baby, etc. The individual changes their behaviours with acceptance of the loss and grief suffered and grows emotionally as an individual. These may be a result of negative impact. Such negative impacts may be the result of death in the family, depression, divorce, disability, etc.

Significant life events often impact the emotional and mental state of mind of an individual. The loss of a beloved family member results in depression or greater impacts of bereavement. Significant life events also impact the personal and social lifestyles of the individual. As in many cases, the individual is impaired to attend social gatherings and commit towards personal duties as a result of bereavement and depression from the significant life event.

Areas where Significant Life Events can affect an Individual

Such significant life events may result in various responses affecting the cognitive, behavioural, emotional and social changes.

• Cognitive responses can be a loss of concentration, poor memory or judgment, negative thoughts and endless worrying. These responses include the mental response of the immediate family members and the society. The response of these members towards the significant life events and the individuals in the mental sense and acceptance is required. The cognitive responses accommodate an understanding of the pain and suffering of these individuals and imply the reactions which provide support to the affected individual.
• Phycological responses are when the body is affected by aches and pains, bowel disorders chest pain, rapid heartbeat, loss of sex drive and frequent colds. These responses include the physical response of society and the immediate family towards significant life events.
• Physical responses can be identified as helping the affected individual in undertaking daily activities and functions. In some cases, the affected individual is unable to function effectively and undertake personal responsibilities. In these cases, physical aid is required the accomplish the required tasks. The physical aid could be identified as bathing, feeding medical care etc.
• Behavioural responses include irregular eating patterns, poor sleeping habits, less engagement with others, nail-biting, grinding teeth or using alcohol or drugs to feel relief. The behavioural responses demonstrate either acceptance or denial from the possible group. The behavioural responses include for mental responses of the immediate society and the family members. These responses are required to be assessed and evaluated to provide effective care services. The denial of these behavioural changes from society results in a build-up of increased pressure and stress for the affected individual. These individuals require acceptance to recover effectively.
• Social responses depending on the individuals and how they might integrate into society influence the way they react towards their culture, social values and attitudes. E.g. negative effects and social withdrawal isolation less engagement of own interests and activities, becoming suspicious and feeling resentment toward others.
• Emotional responses cause individuals to become agitated, short-tempered, lonely isolated and having immense grief or cry. The emotional responses can be accessed through the acceptance and understanding of the immediate society members and the family members towards the emotional stability and responses of the individual. The emotional responses towards this affected individual are required to provide support and condolence to the individual to maintain stability for these affected individuals.

Five Stages of Grieving introduced by Elizabeth Kobler-Ross

Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something important to you. (WebMD,2018) Grieving is natural and healthy when facing a significant loss. Elizabeth Kobler-Ross has introduced a model that has acknowledged five stages of the process when grieving. These are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

Denial is when we may respond at first by being paralysed with shock or blanketed in numbness ( Ross and Kessler,2005). It is followed by Anger which involves questioning oneself, resentment, rage and feeling guilt. The feelings of Anger eventually start to fade, and the process shifts to the stage of healing. This stage is the Bargaining stage where the individual starts self-evaluation. It may take the form of a temporary truce. Depression is the next stage under which the individual feels intense sorrow, and depression and suffers from helplessness and anxiety. The last stage is Acceptance. In this stage, the individuals are a lot calmer with the help of other sources and they acknowledge the event.

In the given case, Sue and Tom lost their 10-year-old daughter. Tom observed that Sue is facing difficulties in executing the daily chores and duties. The impact in psychological dimensions can be observed through Sue being overprotective of her son David and restricting him in everything (Pieper, et. al., 2013). In this case, Tom reached the final stage of ‘Acceptance’ of the Elizabeth Kober-Ross Model whereas Sue was not recovering from the second stage.(AC.1.1.)

The possible groups for an individual include immediate family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and social networks. Society is empirically impacted by the occurrence of significant life events such as bereavement or the grieving process of an individual. The response of groups can be both positive and negative(Wang, 2012). A positive response includes proper support and guidance to aid the individual in coping with the loss. It also includes personal attention and effective medical or emotional care which supports the well-being of the individual.

A negative response may be depicted by the non-acceptance of society and the community members towards the grieving processes and the anger issues individuals display as a result of significant life events (James and Jackman, 2017). Also, change in behaviours and imparity in fulfilling social and personal duties may be observed as a burden on the shoulders of the immediate family and the friends of an individual.

Domains of well-being

Domains of well-being can be used to address the positive response. It includes physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, social, and financial support.

Friends, people and society play an effective role in the support of the grieved individual as they act as the support system to them. They can help them financially, physically, emotionally and mentally. They can make the individual cope with the situation or event that took place with them by motivating them and making them deal with the situation. Emotional support can be provided by friends or family by way of listening, talking and understanding the grief of the people who are experiencing it. They can also contribute to the physical work in terms of household work, activities and school runs. The family and friends can also contribute to their financial needs by helping in paying medical bills and other expenses.

The support provided can also be social and spiritual. The friends and other members of the community of a person in grief can motivate or encourage such a person to participate in various activities of society and community to help him come out of grief. These social groups respond in various manners as per their preferences. Acceptance towards behaviours and irregular or abrupt demands can be considered a positive manner. The ignorance and disregard of the emotional stability and disbalance in the individual personality is an unfavourable response.

The local church, mosque or other centres of culture can provide an individual with spiritual support by helping them connect with God and related beliefs and in required funeral arrangements as per the religion. The co-workers can also provide support in terms of ensuring sympathy, more understanding of work culture or covering shifts. Such culture will help the person in grief to come out of grief and move to the acceptance stage of their loss.

In the given case, the positive attitude of the society helped Tom and Sue to take care of their child in a better manner by making them move on from their past event. The family and society should further support them in a better way by not ignoring them and helping them in every aspect. This will help Tom and Sue get over the grief and lead to high provide effective care for their child and the best parenting. In Sue’s case, a positive response was also depicted by the managers of Sue who provided her with flexible working timings and leaves.(AC.1.2.)

The impact of significant life events on the health and social care individuals can be observed in three different dimensions physical, psychological and social impact. The physical impact can be observed with impairment of the individual to accomplish daily activities and functions. The social impact can be observed in society as the members may feel obliged to take care of the individual. The nurses and the healthcare service providers are impacted by significant life events. Due to an emotional bond between the service users and the providers, the nurses are affected with the significant life events of death or bereavement. The bond that exists between the patients and nurses makes them emotionally weak and any mis happening leads to a high level of stress. Various signs and symptoms are visible in nurses regarding their emotional fatigue such as improper management of work, high stress, low level of concentration, improper quality care provided to patients, the rigid nature of the nurses etc. The grief of the nurses can result in bad behaviour and ineffective care provided to the individual. This results in the emotional burn on the people that made the nurse take off from work so that she can easily move out from her stress and depression.

There are circumstances when the death of a patient may remind the healthcare professionals or nurses of someone close to them. This makes them vulnerable, emotionally withdrawn and isolated affecting their cognitive, social and behavioural responses. Such ‘unresolved grief’ can impact their family and professional life and their ability to concentrate making them uncompassionate towards their patients. This may also result in compromises in taking care of patients and it may result in a patient feeling neglected. The grief may impact their personal life, ruin their relationships, impact their relationships with loved ones negatively and may make them socially withdrawn. However, all such situations of grief may be avoided if they are identified and managed in an efficient manner. The stage of grief must be identified, and regular training must be provided to healthcare professionals to deal with the grief.

In the given case, the nurse who used to take care of Jill, took off from her work after her death so that she could overcome the grief and work accordingly. The organizations could have helped her in dealing with her grief by providing her flexible working hours and additional support such as counselling.(AC.1.3.)

Policies established to support overcoming forms such as Life Events

There are various policies and procedures established by laws, regulations and standards which require hospitals and healthcare organizations to provide effective services to the individuals and their social network who lost their family member or friend. The Standards of Bereavement Care 2001/2012, Palliative Care Review, 2011, Palliative Care Guidance (PCG), Shaping Bereavement Care, 2010 and National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Cancer are various standards and procedures that must be followed by professionals for providing effective services (De la Morena, and Cruzado, 2013).

All the organizations providing care setting services are required to follow a defined procedure after a death has occurred. Such procedure shall begin with notifying the individual’s GP or doctor to certify the death and record its time and the persons present at that time. Notify an appropriate person or next of kin in accordance with the wishes previously ascertained. Perform the last office according to religious and personal beliefs. Lastly, collect and record personal belongings to be handed over to relatives

• Standards of Bereavement Care 2001: Under these standards, guidelines have been established in the context of policies and procedures to be followed and to make the standards more effective, amendments were introduced to the standards in 2012. These standards follow the principles of equality, respect, safety, quality and diversity in providing support services to individuals in need. It has been analysed that 7-10% of individuals in need can be assisted in accordance with these standards and approximately 2-4% require further care and support (Cozza, et, al. 2016). Unfortunately, the standards consist the principle of equality but under policies and procedures followed by the organisations, access to older people is often difficult as compared to younger people. In particular, such access is limited in cases where older people suffer from life-threatening diseases.
• Palliative Care Funding Review 2011: This is a policy under which support is provided to individuals through a holistic approach. Under this approach, the psychological, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of an individual are assessed are given tailored treatment for managing their side effects and symptoms. Based on a review conducted in 2011, almost 457,000 people need palliative support but amongst them, almost 92000 are not in reach. To make this policy efficient, better coordination is required for providing patient care services. The implementation of the policy results in inefficiency when the patients do not want to hear about their sickness or do not cooperate with the treatments suggested by the healthcare professionals (James, and Jackman, 2017).
• Shaping Bereavement Care, 2010: Under this policy, the main focus is on providing training and education to staff members when they are exposed to cases of bereavement on a regular basis. To increase the efficiency of bereavement care, it is important to provide services with more accuracy, and better management of documents and the families of individuals in need must be granted access to the required documents (Burke, et.al., 2015). However, the effectiveness of this policy can be improved if the processes of communication in the organization are smooth and effective and the organization starts its working based on feedback and recommendations. There must be established guidelines so as to promote a consistent approach.
• End of Life Care Strategy, 2008: This strategy was introduced by the Government to promote high quality in the UK for all old age people. Through this strategy, various choices are provided to people in relation to where they would live in their last days and die. The adults under this strategy are provided with advanced and progressive care for all the settings. The biggest challenges for the service providers under this scheme include ensuring the care and dignity of the people served. The services provided under this strategy were effective, but they lacked in efficiency. They are taking the needs of older care as only health-related and social doing rather than following a holistic and personalised approach (Davidson, and Gentry, 2013)

In the case of Sue, she was not provided the services by Bereavement Care but there could be adjustments made in her working days and hours so as to support her to some extent (AC.2.1.)

Types of support social groups can offer in overcoming Significant Life Events of an Individual

There is various kind of support that can be provided by social group and networks to individuals experiencing significant life events. Such support may vary from person to person depending upon his needs and preferences. The support provided may be in the form of physical, emotional, financial and spiritual. The social networks that provide such support may include nurses, GPs, social workers, and carers. The care home residents and their staff, volunteers, the staff of health and social care organizations, family members and carers, including children, are the people who are affected by death (Goyal, et.al., 2014). To provide support to affected people, communications must be made sensitively and immediate and ongoing bereavement must be offered.

Psychologists provide support to an individual in coping with issues relating to mental health mainly focusing on cognitive behaviour therapy, medications, and reducing anxiety and stress. Physiotherapists support individuals with issues relating to physical pain such as the neck, shoulder, knee or other pain-related symptoms of the body by offering them therapeutic exercises and massages. Advocates and Solicitors can help individuals by providing them support and advice in matters relating to property inheritance and act as a liaison between healthcare professionals and patients. The Alzheimer Society provides support services to people suffering from dementia. Such support is provided by providing 24-hour helpline services, personalized care packages, and others. MacMillan Cancer Support provides support services to the people affected by cancer. Such support is provided financially and advice on work-related problems (Cozza, et, al. 2016)

In the given case scenario, the parents of Tom and Sue need support due to a significant life event. They lost their 10-year-old daughter to leukemia and as a result, they are suffering from bereavement. They are provided support by social networks and other external networks for moving out of the situation. The support was provided in the following manner:

• Professional Counselling: Professional counselling helps people facing bereavement due to the traumatic death of their loved ones. Such death may result in various emotions such as isolation, shock, loneliness, guilt, anger and many more. This may also lead to sleepless nights and the people suffering from such problems need support. In professional counselling, there is one-to-one counselling by counsellors or psychotherapists who listen and help people understand and explore their feelings. They provide emotional support to the affected persons. In the given case, Sue was suggested by her husband Tom to attend Professional Counselling so as to recover from the significant life event. This counselling helped her as after these sessions, she was capable of accepting the death of her daughter. This emotional support helped her in getting back to a normal life (Goldman, 2015).
• External support: There are various external organizations that provide emotional, and financial support to people suffering from significant life events. Such organizations may include ‘The Compassionate Friend’ which provides emotional support to people who have lost their child to death (Compassion, 2017).

Physical Support can be provided by various healthcare professionals such as social workers, GP, community nurses, and various other organizations. They may help in reducing the physical strain impacts that the individual may face. The support to such individuals extends to emotional and financial support which is provided by various organizations such as MacMillan Cancer Support which aims to provide support to people in making informed decisions and ensure coordinated care. The emotional support provided may also include counselling which is provided by a counsellor or psychiatrist (Bevan, et.al., 2014). Spiritual support is provided by chaplaincy services to individuals at the time of death or after death in regard to their beliefs and faith.

Holistic Assessment and Support

Holistic assessment

Holistic assessment is an assessment of a client for evaluating all the domains of a patient including physical, social, spiritual, psychological, cultural and environmental. This assessment helps in identifying the abilities, preferences, self-assessments and views of a patient. Healthcare organizations and authorities use this assessment for drawing conclusions on the risks and needs of patients and references are made according to this assessment. The assessment of a patient must be comprehensive and must be conducted with the assistance of health and social care professionals and appropriate support services.

Holistic support

Holistic support provided to a patient can be related to the needs and preferences of patients as identified through the assessment and the associated treatment, care and support. The support provided to the individuals must be tailored according to their needs. Each individual must be provided with a personalised care plan for managing symptoms and side effects.

The patients are provided with psychological and physical support, but these symptoms cannot always be controlled. The psychological support provided to the patients encompasses empowerment and emotional support. This also includes specialist psychological care. Such support is provided through cognitive behaviour therapy, social skill training, medications for easing psychological distress, depression or anxiety and others.

The patients in need of support are recommended appropriate referrals. Such referrals are important in cases where the patients are facing anxiety, when they have a history of lack of tendency to cope or depressive illness, or when their behaviour relates to prolonged silence. Such referrals shall also be important in cases of existential fear, spiritual needs or when they face cases of sudden death.

• The Deaf Society: It is a deaf-led charity which is focused on ensuring that the deaf living in UK are provided equal rights and opportunities. The main aim of this charity organization is to ensure that deaf people have access to public services and that they adapt all the skills available for hearing purposes. This organization however has no relevance in the case of Tom and Sue as they lost their child to cancer and there was no hearing disability that they were facing.
• Age UK: It is a charitable organization in UK which aims to provide support to people in their old age. Their main aim is to provide motivation and support to aged people in leading their lives. In the given case scenario, Tom and Sue are not eligible to take support from this organization as their needs do not match the services provided by the organization.
• Motor Neurone Disease Association: It is a British charitable organisation providing support to persons affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is a form of motor neurone disease. The main aim of the group is to coordinate support, care and research for people eligible to avail services of this organization. In the given case scenario, Sue and Tom are not in need of support provided by this organization as they have faced significant life events and are not affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In the given case, Sue received support from ‘Shaping the Bereavement’ which did not result in her improvement. This financial and emotional support was not sufficient for her and therefore she was suggested for professional services. Sue felt relieved after counselling as her counsellor made her realize it is normal for someone to be struck with grief, and how a routine life may be impacted as a result of facing any significant life events.

Sue needed emotional and psychological support even after she was provided support from Shaping the Bereavement. She was not able to recover from the loss of her daughter and therefore she needed a referral. In her situation, she needed a holistic assessment for the appropriate treatment.(AC.2.2.)

Individuals who are bereaved or grieving may need professional support. Such professional support can be provided from various external sources. These external sources include commissioners, psychiatrists, legal advisors such as solicitors or advocates, accountants, cultural, religious and spiritual agencies, counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists. These healthcare organizations exercise due care and consideration when dealing with individuals affected by significant life events. Such external sources provide holistic and other support to the affected individuals (Burke, et.al., 2015).

The external agencies and organizations provide holistic support. For the purpose of providing holistic support, healthcare professionals are required to conduct a holistic assessment. Under this assessment, the psychological, spiritual, social, cultural, and environmental needs and preferences of an individual are assessed. Such an assessment is necessary so that the treatment can be tailored according to the needs of the individual and a personalized care plan could be developed for managing symptoms and side-effects.

In the situations of bereavement, there are various organizations that provide support to people who are affected by significant life events. There are different life events that may have adverse impacts on the physical, mental, and social health of a human being. In such situations, they need all kinds of support which may be in the form of finances, emotional support, psychological support or medical support. There may be different organizations from whom support can be sought. However, such organizations may or may not be suitable for the person affected by significant life events. The organizations also provide support based on the needs of circumstances of every person. The suitability of support provided by external sources can be evaluated as follows:

• Bereaved Partners Support Group: This is a registered charity group that aims to provide support to people affected by significant life events. Such a significant event is losing a loved one to cancer. This group provides support by managing people with similar experiences to share their stories and experiences. This group believes that talking helps in overcoming any bereavement and it is open to all people affected by the death of a loved one due to cancer. It is a mutual support group. These support groups help people suffering from bereavement to talk to someone who is much forward in the healing process. Parents who face significant life events as they lose their child can benefit from this support group. In this group, the parents are able to discuss their experiences with other people and learn about other people’s experiences who are going through the same phase in their lives. This kind of support is most beneficial in the initial stage of bereavement as the affected persons face problems accepting the death of their loved ones. Through the support group, they can accept death and are able to arrive at a mindset of coping with the circumstances. However, it may sometimes be discouraging for people in the initial stage of healing. In the given case scenario, Sue and Tom can avail the services provided by this organization as it provides bereavement services to someone who lost their loved one to cancer and Sue and Tom lost their daughter to cancer. Therefore, it is a suitable organization in their case (Näppä, et.al., 2016).
• Shaping the Bereavement: It is an organisation which recognizes quality bereavement care and provides evidence-based training to the staff members to enable them to provide appropriate support to bereaved carers and relatives. It provides actions-based support including social, emotional and spiritual support to people who face death in their family or relatives. The organisation advises on the actions to be taken and the emotions that may be faced by an affected person. The initial phase of bereavement for parents is crucial. They need support and this organization can provide support to parents in the initial times by ensuring that their emotional, social and spiritual needs are taken care of. In the given case scenario, after the death of daughter Jill, bereavement support was provided by this organization. The parents were supported by this organization in their initial stage (Newsom, et.al., 2017) (AC.2.3.)
• Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service (JBCS): It is an organization which provides confidential counselling services to people suffering from bereavement. Such counselling is provided on a one-to-one basis by experienced and trained volunteer counsellors. However, the downside of this organization is that it provides services only to the Jews. The given case scenario does not state that Sue and Tom were Jewish and therefore it is assumed that they are not Jewish. As an outcome, they cannot avail services of the JBCS organization as its services are limited to Jewish people.
• Bowel Cancer Support: This organisation is a cancer support charity organization which provides support to people affected by Bowel Cancer. Their main aim is to improve the quality of life and provide support to people affected by Bowel Cancer. To ensure a future where nobody dies of cancer, they run workshops and training for healthcare professionals and organise campaigns for early detection of cancer. They also provide access to the persons affected by cancer with the best quality treatment and care. The support services provided by bowel cancer support help educate the community and spread awareness about cancer and proper treatments. However, these support services fail when the patient is not willing to avail the services or resist any treatment (Anderson, et.al., 2015).In the given case scenario, the death of Jill was due to leukaemia and the organization provides support services to bowel cancer patients. Therefore, this organization is not suitable in the given case scenario.
• The Lullaby Trust: This trust is committed to raising awareness on matters such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The services provided by the trust include providing expert advice in relation to safer sleep for babies and providing emotional support to their families suffering from bereavement. The awareness created by this organization provides better support to the parents in taking care of their infants such as it promotes and recommends co-sleeping for at least six months of age. However, the support provided by this organization is limited to the families of infants (Binger, 2015). In a given case, this organization is not suitable as the daughter lost to Sue and Tom was 10 years old and therefore they are not eligible to gain support services from this organization.

From the evaluation of the suitability of the above-mentioned organizations, it can be concluded that the Bereaved Partners Support Group can help Tom and Sue as they have lost their daughter Jill to cancer. They are eligible to avail the services of this charity group. In the initial stage of bereavement, Sue availed the services of this charity group to pull herself together and move back to a normal life.

In the given case, Sue and Tom took assistance from external organizations but Sue continued to show signs of grief even after the passage of sufficient time period to recover from grief. She felt guilty and as a result, she was overprotective of her son. She was advised to consult a professional counsellor to help her recover from her grief and move on with her life. She was provided with support by the Bereaved Partners who provide support to people by identifying and sharing experiences and views with people suffering from similar conditions.

When Sue was not able to recover from her bereavement even after the support was provided by Shaping the Bereavement and Partner Support Group, she was recommended by her husband to take support from professional counselling. The professional counsellor used cognitive grieving therapy to help Sue search for a rational meaning to life. Sue was able to affirm the normality of her grief and loss behaviour. This professional Counselling helped her develop the skills to cope in the final stages of her grieving process.

Health practitioners face loss and grief regularly due to their own life experiences and the experiences and other experiences with ill-health and death of patients or through exposure to loss and grief experienced by patients and their families. Healthcare professionals are highly capable and particular in ensuring the care of their patients and their families but there are times when they overlook taking care of themselves during their bereavement times. The bereavement feeling of healthcare professionals is often not acknowledged and therefore the organizations employing healthcare professionals are required to implement certain policies and procedures with the aim if fulfilling the needs of such professionals in times of bereavement (Kinderman, et.al., 2013). Such employees must be provided with comfort and sympathy from co-workers and managers.

Organizations must consider focusing on the needs of employees by communicating effectively and sympathizing with them, showing them respect and helping them in making informed decisions. The need for employees in the context of confidentiality, data protection, and regular assessments must be identified and acknowledged. The organization must identify the employees that are most vulnerable to grief and loss (Kleiman, et.al., 2014). Such identification can be based on past records such as the previous diagnosis of employees with depression or records of suicidal attempts. The employees who are less skilled in managing situations of grief and loss must also be identified and provided with special support.

The abilities of employees to work effectively and efficiently may also be impacted as a result of facing any significant life events or bereavement. In such situations, the management and HR manager of the organization must identify and ensure that such identified employees are provided with programs and procedures from which they can benefit in situations of bereavement (Lin, et.al., 2013). The employers must provide support to such identified employees through trained, qualified and experienced staff members. Such support from employers and managers can also result in an increase in the commitment of employees to the employer.

The organization can help the identified employees through a critical response team. Such a team is led by managers and HR professionals who provide additional support, undertake to critique sessions, debriefing, and diffusing sessions and follow up to employees in times of bereavement (Wang, et.al., 2014).

The employees are provided support within six to eight hours of the incident under the defusing session. A non-judgemental meeting of persons affected by grief or loss is carried and such a meeting is confidential. The highly trained professionals and counsellors are critical for this meeting as they can help the participants of the meeting by letting them know the emotional, physical and mental reactions that they may face and providing them with ways in which such situations can be dealt with. Another suggested response of the team can be a debriefing session. In this session, a semi-structural one-time conversation can be arranged with an individual who has faced any such similar incident in the recent past (Wagner, et.al., 2014). This process is aimed at protecting the individual from any psychological harm as in session, they are allowed to share their feelings and experiences with others. This session must be provided within 24-72 hours of an incident for best outcomes. These sessions are followed by a follow-up session under which the team members check in to ensure that the affected individuals are handling fine.

Understanding Critiquing Session

Under the critiquing session, all the aspects of the incident are evaluated by managers or supervisors and curative solutions are offered based on the identified deficiencies. This session is held weeks after the incident. The evaluation process under this session includes how the incident must be handled and prevented and what measures can be taken to make it more effective. It aids in reviewing the existing policies and procedures (Granek, et.al., 2012).

In the case of Sue, her organization could have provided support by identifying her needs and providing her with options like flexible working, financial support, paid leave and others. The critical response team of her organization could have provided her with debriefing or defusing sessions followed by follow-up sessions to find out her state of mind and provide her with some assistance in coping with her loss. (AC.3.1.)

I lost my grandmother five years ago due to last-stage cancer. She died within a month of her diagnosis of cancer. This death incident tore my family apart. My parents were hugely impacted by her death as they were too close to her, but I wasn’t very close to her. All the savings of my parents were spent on her treatment and yet they couldn’t save her. Her death was a shock for my parents.

Eventually, my mother was able to manage herself and pull back her life, but my father couldn’t pull himself out of the grief and loss of the death of his mother. He feels guilty for not spending much time with her mother and cancelling her every now and then. In this situation, we faced a financial crisis as my earnings were not sufficient to manage the expenses in the family. However, I provided financial support to my family to every possible extent by managing their monthly bills, expenditures of groceries and other household expenses. During this time, my father also felt sick due to extreme financial and emotional stress. I provided him with physical support by taking him to doctor visits and helped my mother by helping her in grocery shopping. I would drive her to her work everyday and kept track of their medications. When my grandmother died, my father needed help with the crematory services as he alone was not capable of managing the crematory and funeral. I helped him with these spiritual works. Further, I invited friends of my parents at our place from time to time so that they could share their grief and use social support to recover.

When reflecting on the process of support, I feel that my organization could have helped me by letting me work in flexible hours. I did not have any experience in dealing with situations of bereavement and in this situation, it was difficult for me to provide support to my parents and manage my work at the same time. There were times when I felt that I couldn't provide any additional support to my parents as I was left with no time for myself or my social life but then I realized that I could not give up on my responsibilities. From this experience, I learned that the feeling of grief and loss can turn the life of an individual upside down. The individuals facing bereavement don't need to recover after any certain time or express themselves in any certain way. (AC.3.2.)

To improve the health care services provided to a person impacted by significant life events, organizations are required to follow the patient-centred approach. The organizations must deliver quality services focussing on the needs of patients. The leaders must undertake the responsibility of frontline staff and support them in providing services of quality and care to the patients. Patients suffering from long-term conditions must be provided with support near to their houses. They can be supported through earlier detection of disease and providing treatment to minimize its effects (Kleiman, et.al., 2014). The patients affected by long-term diseases must be provided with financial assistance, promoting independence, allowing the patients to take control of their lives and extending their quality of life.

The organizations providing bereavement support services must be proactive and must establish contacts with the people at risk to provide them with effective support. The organizations must adopt a holistic approach for the identification of need of employees and other individuals suffering from bereavement and determine the most suitable programs for providing them with psychological, financial and physical support. They must also review their policies and procedures for providing care services on a regular basis (Koenig, 2013).

The organizations providing care services to children must ensure that their services include care planning and assessment of provided services and the situation of the child particularly in cases of neglect and abuse. They must also enter into an agreement with the parents of the child including clear timeframes and consequences of non-compliance. (AC.3.3.)

Conclusion

Significant life events turn the life of an individual upside down. When a person is suffering from bereavement, he can be aided by the support provided by his immediate social group, family members, support agencies, workplace organizations, and healthcare professionals. The support must be provided considering all the factors that are influencing the physical and mental health of the individual. There are certain situations when even the employees face bereavement as a result of experiencing any loss of their patient. In such situations, healthcare organizations must provide them with support to bear the bereavement circumstances.

References

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