Mors 200 Arts Final - Funeral Service Psychology and Counseling 5 Part 2
This deck covers key concepts in crisis intervention and counseling, including definitions, models, and roles in funeral service psychology.
Sending family grief oriented literature one or more times after the funeral
Cards, letters, brochures, books, newsletters, or a directory of local grief support groups or agencies.
Information Oriented Services
Key Terms
Sending family grief oriented literature one or more times after the funeral
Cards, letters, brochures, books, newsletters, or a directory of local grief support groups or agencies.
Information Oriented Services
Having a grief counselor at the funeral home
Sponsoring a support group
Sponsoring grief related seminars or workshops
Special ceremonies during holidays
Providing a personal visit to the family’s home
Direct Care Services
Who stated that: “Each of us holds fears, doubts, anxieties, and questions about death.
Welch
Having to handle a loss similar to a loss they personally experienced. e.g., death of their child.
Having unresolved loss issues that arise when dealing with a grieving family.
Handling a particularly horrendous death.
Having a close personal relationship with the deceased.
Reports of Funeral directors on their own issues of grief that can surface when dealing with these situations.
Do you feel comfortable talking about your own death?
Being a funeral director, you help people with death every day. However, are you comfortable talking about your own death?
If you are uneasy talking about your own death and haven't thought about what you believe happens when you die, most likely you aren't comfortable talking about your own personal death.
Try to get to a point to where you can when friends and family, plan your own funeral, write instructions, ask family for beliefs about what happens after death - you will be learning and integrating a diversity of information and will be able to be more sensitive when planning family's funeral services.
Having a clear sense of what happens after you die will aid you personally when you experience a loss in your life. (People who believe in an afterlife tend to cope with loss better).
Kelley Baltzell - parts from her "Yellow book news"
To be aware of her interactions and limitations in working with different clients and different kinds of grief situations.
Discover unresolved loss issues.
Identify resources that helped her and may help her client.
Looking into one's own experience with death and grief can help a funeral director do these things.
Related Flashcard Decks
Study Tips
- Press F to enter focus mode for distraction-free studying
- Review cards regularly to improve retention
- Try to recall the answer before flipping the card
- Share this deck with friends to study together
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Sending family grief oriented literature one or more times after the funeral Cards, letters, brochures, books, newsletters, or a directory of local grief support groups or agencies. | Information Oriented Services |
Having a grief counselor at the funeral home Sponsoring a support group Sponsoring grief related seminars or workshops Special ceremonies during holidays Providing a personal visit to the family’s home | Direct Care Services |
Who stated that: “Each of us holds fears, doubts, anxieties, and questions about death. | Welch |
Having to handle a loss similar to a loss they personally experienced. e.g., death of their child. Having unresolved loss issues that arise when dealing with a grieving family. Handling a particularly horrendous death. Having a close personal relationship with the deceased. | Reports of Funeral directors on their own issues of grief that can surface when dealing with these situations. |
Do you feel comfortable talking about your own death? Being a funeral director, you help people with death every day. However, are you comfortable talking about your own death? If you are uneasy talking about your own death and haven't thought about what you believe happens when you die, most likely you aren't comfortable talking about your own personal death. Try to get to a point to where you can when friends and family, plan your own funeral, write instructions, ask family for beliefs about what happens after death - you will be learning and integrating a diversity of information and will be able to be more sensitive when planning family's funeral services. Having a clear sense of what happens after you die will aid you personally when you experience a loss in your life. (People who believe in an afterlife tend to cope with loss better). | Kelley Baltzell - parts from her "Yellow book news" |
To be aware of her interactions and limitations in working with different clients and different kinds of grief situations. Discover unresolved loss issues. Identify resources that helped her and may help her client. | Looking into one's own experience with death and grief can help a funeral director do these things. |
Self and analysis of loss. One way to initiate this is to start a loss time-line. | Loss analysis |
Draw a straight line and on the left end put your year of birth; at the right end, put in this year. In the middle, place the year that divides the line in two equal blocks.- Next, divide the two halves of the time-line into blocks of years.- Review your life for loss events and place them on the line in the appropriate spaces. | Loss Timeline |
An inventory of loss. | Loss inventory |
Did you have any anticipatory grief? If yes, how did you feel and respond physically, emotionally, and spiritually? When the death occurred, how did you feel and respond physically, emotionally, and spiritually? What do you remember most about the experience? What helped you in coping with each loss? What did you learn from these experiences that can help you in counseling others? | Questions to ask yourself about your losses for loss inventory. |
Ways to look at your own losses in life. (2) | Loss analysis Loss inventory |
Who stated that: "The first practical step in dealing with our own beliefs is to acknowledge their existence! From there you can go on to deal with them." | Bright |
Life events that exert pressure or strain. | Stress |
Any event capable of producing stress. | Stressor |
Medical Human service Business | Similar stress producing factors common in other professional groups (to the funeral director). |
Immediate involvement with the human body of individuals. Contact is similar to that of a pathologist in that the human is dead. Must be knowledgable about the scientific aspects of public health and disease in order to protect himself and the people in the community. When handling someone with a contagious disease, must worry about being infected. - do not want to pass to members of family, especially if the funeral director lives in the funeral home. Must restore the dead human to normal appearance (like a doctor would restore someone back to being healthy) Skills similar to surgeons and plastic surgeons are required.- Stress of wanting the family to be satisfied is always there. | Medical stressors |
Stress caused by emotional strain - dealing with people with emotional strain. Have the responsibility of helping people with a plan (the funeral) for dealing with the acute period right after the death. Help "customize" activities that will help clients individually heal. Worry a great deal about making sure everything goes "just right" and that the survivors needs will be met and satisfied. Helping families deal with the bureaucracy and trying to get the benefits due them. Social security, veterans' agencies, and insurance companies can be heartless and uncaring in the way they deal with survivors. | Human service stressors |
Uncertainty and lack of control over their time. Working unscheduled hours, holidays and special family days, as well as disturbed sleep.Causes marital and parenting problems. Owner/manager deals with these problems themselves, but also must help his staff deal with them also. More than just money, takes creativity, understanding, and communication to retain and motivate good professionals. | Business stressors |
True or false: All stress is not negative and harmful. Some stress in our daily lives is desirable and even necessary. | True |
Stress of hunger to keep us from starving Excitement and anticipation makes big events more enjoyable. Depends on the mental attitude and ability of our bodies to deal effectively with outside influences. | Good stress |
True or false: What is positive and exciting for one person can be negative and destructive to another. | True |
When a person is confronted with a stressful situation, whether it is positive or negative, the body responds with the "flight or fight" response. | Physiology of stress |
Chemical messages are sent from the brain to the hypothalamus gland, which stimulates chemicals that are sent in two routes. - Pituitary gland- Down the brain stem and spinal cord | Bodys' response to stress |
This is where the chemicals are changed into hormones that enter the blood stream and travel to the cortex of the adrenal glands, which produce chemicals that increase blood sugar level and metabolism. | Pituitary gland path |
From there, it goes to the core of the adrenal glands. There, adrenaline is produced to help fuel the muscles and brain, and norepinephrine is produced to increase heartbeat and blood pressure. | Path down the brain stem and spinal cord |
The body preparing itself to take physical action in response to the stressor. A positive defense mechanism when the situation calls for a physical response. | Flight-or-fight response |
A condition where your mind and body are relentlessly strained when you develop physical, emotional, and mental fatigue. It produces feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness, cynicism, resentment, failure, depression, and unhappiness.- occurs when the stressors are long-term and do not generate physical response, the tension activates a series of responses that wear away a body's health. (Grollman) | Burnout |
Exhaustion and loss of energy Irritability and impatience Cynicism and detachment Physical complaints - Disorientation, confusion Omnipotence and feeling indispensable Depression Minimization and denial of feelings | Characteristics of stress and burnout by Wolfelt |
Create periods of rest and renewal Be compassionate with yourself about not being perfect Set limits and alleviate stress you can do something about Learn time management skills Cultivate a personal support network Understand your motivation for working in funeral service Develop healthy eating, sleeping, and exercise patterns Identify ways in which your body informs you that you are stressed. | Recommendations for Reducing Stress for the Funeral Director (ABFSE): |
talk about worries Realize that you and others are not perfect Control your "what if" scenario Delegate some responsibility and authority Identify stressors in your life Control your mental confrontations If necessary, blow off steam Perform some type of physical activity Try soaking in a hot bath Use one or more relaxation techniques daily Talk with aother counselor You are not a magician Be attentive to other staff members who are working with the bereaved You are permitted to feel helpless at times You are permitted to admit to the feeling of hopelessness KNow what characterizes a "trigger case" for you. | Other Suggestions for Dealing With Stress and Caring for Yourself |