Table Of ContentResponding to Grief
Also by Caroline Currer
Concepts of Health, Illness and Disease (editor with M. Stacey)
Responding to Grief
Dying, Bereavement and Social Care
Caroline Currer
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
© Caroline Currer 2001
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Contents
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction: Dying, Bereavement and Social Care 1
1.1 Dying, Bereavement and Social Care: An Ambiguous
Relationship 2
1.2 Aims, Approach, Sources and Structure 7
2 Social Care 11
2.1 Care and Carers: Some Definitions 11
2.2 Structure of Services 15
2.3 Essential Features of Social Care 17
2.4 The Social Context of Social Care: Current Issues
and Trends 19
3 Understanding Death and Dying 22
3.1 The Relevance for Practice of Theoretical
Understandings 22
3.2 Defining Death: Biological and Social Death 24
3.3 The Demography of Death 27
3.4 Changed Social Understandings of Death 29
3.5 Rites of Passage 31
3.6 Dying: Introduction 32
3.7 Who is Dying? 33
3.8 What is Dying? 37
3.9 Facing Death: Psychological Perspectives 38
4 Facing Death 43
4.1 Managing the Present 44
4.2 Abandoning the Future 47
4.3 Separation, Loneliness and the Social Bond 51
4.4 Some Reflections upon Theory 54
v
vi Contents
5 Care Workers’ Involvement with Those Facing
Their Own Death 58
5.1 Social Care with People Facing Death: A Broad
Spectrum 59
5.2 The Social Care Response 77
5.3 Issues of Training and Support 86
5.4 Conclusion: Social Care with People who are
Dying 88
6 Understanding Grief and Bereavement 90
6.1 Defining Key Terms 91
6.2 The Grieving Process and the Grief Work
Hypothesis 94
6.3 Theoretical Developments and Debate 101
6.4 A Child’s Grief 107
6.5 Consequences of Grief 110
6.6 Conclusion: Understanding Grief 111
7 Experiencing Bereavement 113
7.1 Individual Aspects of the Experience of Grief 115
7.2 Social Aspects of the Grieving Experience 118
7.3 Responding to Grief: The What and Who of
Receiving Help 120
8 Care Workers’ Involvement with Those Who are
Bereaved 124
8.1 Bereavement: A Significant Feature in All Areas of
Social Care 126
8.2 The Social Care Response 140
8.3 Issues of Training and Support 149
9 Responding to Grief: Conclusions for Social Care 155
9.1 Why Should Social Care Workers be Involved with
Those Who are Dying or Bereaved? 156
9.2 What Can Social Care Workers Do? 156
9.3 What Do We Need if We are to Do this Well? 157
9.4 How is this Particular to Social Care? 157
Contents vii
Organisations 159
Bibliography 160
Index 173
List of Tables
3.1 Deaths in given age bands, as a percentage of all deaths,
by gender, England and Wales, 1998 27
3.2 Selected major causes of death, as a percentage of total
deaths in each age group, England and Wales, 1998 27
viii
Acknowledgements
It would not have been possible to write this book without the support
and encouragement of Kate Atherton, Judy Hicks, Carol Holloway,
Jenny Pardoe and Margaret Wareing and of colleagues in the Social
Work Department at Anglia Polytechnic University. I am grateful too
to Jo Campling for guiding me through the process, to Jeanne Katz for
her helpful comments on an early draft, to librarian Thelma May and to
David Oliviere for some timely help.
In researching the experience and role of social care practitioners,
anumber of people have given generously of their time, and it has been
a privilege to hear from them about their work. In addition to those
already mentioned, particular thanks are due to Graham Badger, Jane
Burditt, Lyn Crisp, Grace Cunningham, Chris Davis, Judy Edwards,
Julia Franklin, Leila Gordon, Dini Hardy, Carla Hodgson, Nicki Hone,
Joyce Jones, Joyce MacDonald, Greg Mantle, Christina Mason, Ian
Morris, Mary Pennock, Sue Percival, Valerie Peters, Jill Rapoport,
Clare Seymour, Jean Swanson, Tessa Sowerby and Nick Tyndall. I trust
that they will feel that the whole does justice to the parts that they will
recognise.
Each year, I learn afresh from the second-year Diploma in Social
Work students who take the ‘Loss and Social Work’ elective module.
Whilst preparing this book, I invited one cohort of students to con-
tribute examples that relate theory to practice in responding to grief.
Iam grateful to all those who responded, especially Jill Ahmet, Colette
Boukhoufane, Lucy Firmin, Sue Foster, Fiona Flynn, Sharon Gage,
Audrey Hornsey, Vic Inderjeet, Helen Jocelyn, Glenda Lanoix, Melvyn
Plum, Karin Roberts, Louisa Ruff, Cherie Smith, Paula Stockwell,
Marion Talbot, Jocelyn Trent and Barbara Vincent. They will recog-
nise some of the examples given, but I hope that no-one else will. All
details have been altered, and any errors are mine, not theirs.
Chapters 4 and 7 draw heavily on published accounts by dying and
bereaved people of their experiences. Those of us who seek to under-
stand these aspects of life owe much to others who have written or spoken
about their own feelings and experiences. I hope that what is here does
justice to the accounts from which I have quoted. Particular thanks are
due to Andrew Pearmain and Richard Davies for permission to use the
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