Chapter 2: An Understanding of Grief and the Role of the Funeral Professional 1 CE Hour
By: Gene Jerskey Learning objectives
After completing this course, the learner will be able to: Gain a general understanding of grief and bereavement. List the five stages of grief. Course overview Gaining an understanding of grief, how it is felt and expressed by the bereaved, and how its expression may depend on the kind of loss sustained, will allow funeral directors to respond to their clients more empathically, providing comfort where they can. It may also serve to give the funeral director insight Implicit bias in healthcare I mplicit bias significantly affects how healthcare professionals perceive and make treatment decisions, ultimately resulting in disparities in health outcomes. These biases, often unconscious and unintentional, can shape behavior and produce differences in medical care along various lines, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and socioeconomic status. Healthcare disparities stemming from implicit bias can manifest in several ways. For example, a healthcare provider might unconsciously give less attention to a patient or make assumptions about their medical needs based on race, gender, or age. The unconscious assumptions can lead to delayed or inadequate care, misdiagnoses, or inappropriate treatments, all of which can adversely impact health
Discuss alternative models of grief. Describe special aspects regarding the relationship to the deceased.
into their own feelings arising from being around others’ grief. Funeral directors have a frontline experience of the loss of their client's experience. This basic-level course will walk through the five stages of grief and bereavement and explore how different relationships are affected by the loss of loved ones. outcomes. Addressing implicit bias in healthcare is crucial for achieving equity in medical treatment. Strategies to combat these biases involve education and awareness programs for healthcare professionals. These programs help individuals recognize and acknowledge their biases, fostering a more empathetic and unbiased approach to patient care. Additionally, implementing policies and procedures prioritizing equitable treatment for all patients can play a pivotal role in reducing healthcare disparities. Ultimately, confronting implicit bias in healthcare is essential to creating a more just and equitable healthcare system where everyone receives fair and equal treatment regardless of their background or characteristics.
INTRODUCTION
But gaining an understanding of grief, how it is felt and expressed by the bereaved, and how its expression may depend on the kind of loss sustained, will allow funeral directors to respond to their clients more empathically, providing comfort where they can. It may also serve to give the funeral director insight into their own feelings arising from being around others’ grief.
Grief and loss surround anyone working in the funeral services field. Funeral directors may be tempted to keep involvement with the emotional side of death at arm’s length, perhaps in an attempt to avoid burnout, or “compassion fatigue,” which have both been reported for funeral directors at higher rates since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic (Van Overmeire, 2021). The role of the funeral director Although funeral directors are not therapists and may not have formal training in grief counseling, they have a frontline experience of the loss their clients experience. They may well be the first point of contact outside of immediate family and friends
for the recently bereaved. This creates an opportunity while making arrangements for the deceased and their loved ones, to provide understanding, empathy, and compassion.
PART I: MODELS OF GRIEF
them. Different models may feel more or less relevant in different contexts. Whether or not you share information about these models with your clients, they can help you better understand what they are going through and how they are enacting and reacting to their grief.
The first section of this course presents four models of grief and mourning, each developed by mental health professionals to make sense of the turbulent process people go through when they have lost a loved one or have gone through another intense form of loss. These four models represent alternative, sometimes conflicting, understandings, but there are also parallels between The Five Stages of Grief The Five Stages of Grief is one of the most widely known frameworks for understanding grief. It describes the way those struggling with the loss of a loved one or with a terminal illness may process and express their feelings and how this may change over time (Kübler-Ross, 1969). In “On Death and Dying,” where she first proposed the five stages, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross notes that the bereaved may repeat or skip stages or become stuck in one stage. The five stages are not a hard and fast itinerary that will easily predict the experience of the bereaved, but they may form a useful lens through which to view mourners’ experience and a springboard for conversations with the bereaved. The stages of grief Kubler-Ross proposed are as follows:
Denial In this initial phase of grieving, the grieving person refuses to acknowledge their loss on a deep level. For a terminally ill person, this may mean disbelieving their diagnosis. For the recently bereaved, this may mean a refusal to face the full weight of their loss, even as they recognize, in a literal sense, that they have lost a loved one. While denial may not seem like a healthy response to loss, as an initial reaction, it is a natural coping mechanism that allows the bereaved to, in Kübler-Ross’s words, “pace our feelings of grief.” Kübler-Ross notes that denial is tied to the surprise and shock of loss. As this shock fades and the
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