Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly

Contents Acknowledgments

* Introduction * An Old Woman's Story * Beginning Assumptions * The Role of Personal Experience * The Role of Grief Education * Concerns About Aging * Historical Trends and Eldercare * The Grief Education Workshop Format * An Overview of This Book * Chapter 1: The Challenge of Grief Education for Caregivers of the Institutionalized Elderly * Grief and Loss Support Services Needed * The Scope of the Need * A Mandate for Grief Education * The Goal of Grief Education * Grief Education Objectives * Chapter 2: Aging and the Elderly * The Development of Life Span Perspective * Characteristics of Old Age * Definitions of Aging * The Grief of Growing Old * A Description of the Aging Process * Explanatory Theories of Aging * Chapter 3: Bereavement and the Elderly * Universal Bereavement Responses * General Observations * Why Do We Grieve? * Grief as Normal Life Crisis * Bereavement Study * Types of Loss * The Tasks of Mourning * Grief Work: How Long? * Factors That Affect the Course of Grief * Phases of Bereavement * Effects of Bereavement in Elderly * Chapter 4: Death and Dying and the Elderly * Death and Society * Dying and the Individual * Death and Dying: A Developmental Point of View * Death and Dying Responses * Dying with Integrity * The Dying Process * Tasks of the Dying Person * Complications * Death and Dying and Elderly Persons * Death and the Life Cycle * Chapter 5: Workshop Design--A Successful Model * Workshop Expectations * A Successful Program * Phases of Workshop Design * Generalizations of Learning * Summary: The Ten Commandments of Grief Education * Chapter 6: Caregivers: Practitioners, Helpers, and Companions * Who Is a Caregiver? * Developing a Continuum of Care Model * Continuum of Care Contexts * Caregiver Frustrations * Obstacles to Caregiving * To Help or Not To Help? * Predisposition to Assist Aging and Dying Elderly Persons * General Caregiving Intervention Goals * Stage-Appropriate Objectives * The Role of the Grief Counselor * Counseling and the Elderly * The Caregiver and Self-Care * Chapter 7: Clergy as Caregivers * Pastoral Care Traditions * Community Traditions of Pastoral Care * Pastoral Caregiving Experiences * Assessment of Clergy as Caregivers * Problems with the Pastoral Caregiving Task * A Definition of Pastoral Care to the Grieving and Elderly * The Goal of Pastoral Caregiving * Pastoral Objectives for Working with the Aged, Bereaved, and Dying * General Pastoral Care Strategies Reviewed * The Art of Pastoral Caregiving: Learnings from Ministry with Elderly People * The Pastoral Caregiver as Recovered Healer * Chapter 8: Envisioning Eldercare: The Next Fifty Years * The Future of Eldercare * Challenge One: Understanding the Realities of Old Age * Challenge Two: Creating Spaces for Ethical Dialogue * Challenge Three: Conserving Resources and Enhancing Quality Care * Challenge Four: Using Education As a Resource * Challenge Five: Caregiving When All Our Houses Are Full of the Elderly * Conclusion * Appendixes: Workshops * Workshop 1. Attachment, Loss, and the Process of Mourning * Objectives * Schedule * Personal Grief History * Grief and Loss Case Study *  Participant Evaluation Form * Workshop 2. Bereavement * Schedule * Aging: As I Imagine Myself * Behaviors That Encourage Expression of Needs * Bereavement Workshop Evaluation Form *  Workshop 3. Grief and Loss *  Schedule * Death and Dying: Attitudes Checklist *  Workshop 4. The Art of Caring for the Dying Person *  About the Workshop * Schedule *  Registration Form *  Workshop 5. When Someone Dies * Workshop Objectives *  Schedule *  Caregiv