Grieving Process and Models

Losing a loved one is a major event that every individual experiences because death is a normal part of life. The process through which an individual approaches death or grieves after losing a loved one is usually affected by his/her social environment. The social environment affects this process through familial, societal, and cultural factors. One of the most common issues in today's social work practice helping clients deal with the loss of a loved one. Consequently, understanding the grieving process and models is an important competency for social workers because of the likelihood of handling clients who need to learn and know how to grieve with the loss of a loved one. An understanding of the grieving process helps the social worker to understand how to address the needs of a grieving individual and his/her family. However, social workers need to develop self-care strategies since handling such individuals can be emotionally, mentally and physically draining.

The most commonly utilized models of grieving are Kubler-Ross and Westburg models which incorporates different stages through which a person progresses when responding to the loss of a loved one. As a social worker in a hospice environment, the grieving models I would apply with families grieving the loss of loved ones is Kubler-Ross grieving model. Social workers generally handle many issues and responsibilities in hospice care including family end-of-life care and helping individuals cope with the loss of a loved one. Kubler-Ross grieving model is suitable for a hospice environment since it can be utilized as part of family end-of-life education. The first step in applying this model would entail helping family members go through the denial stage since denial is a functional aspect of grieving since it assists in making the loss relatively easy (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016). During this process, I will provide a platform for the individuals to direct their anger to a superior being as they question the reason for the loss. Most of my focus in applying this model would be helping the individual reach the stage of acceptance through dealing with any form of depression. In this case, I will focus on identifying the stage the family member is in and provide suitable help to help him/her get to the stage of acceptance. The most effective services will be provided to the individual based on the stage he/she is experiencing as part of coping with the death.

The most difficult components of Kubler-Ross grieving model to apply in my social work practice in a hospice environment are anger and bargaining. These are difficult components because they are relatively personal since the individual is questioning and bargaining with his/her superior being. When the individual is expressing his/her anger towards the superior being, it is very difficult to provide coping methods because the anger is not directed to a person but a superior being. Similarly, it is difficult to provide coping techniques when the grieving individual is bargaining with his/her superior being. The other components of the grieving process are easier to handle using counseling and therapy, but there are numerous difficulties in finding the most suitable coping method for anger and bargaining.

As previously indicated, it is important for a social worker to develop self-care strategies given that helping individuals cope with the loss of a loved one is emotionally, physically, and mentally exhaustive. One of the self-care strategies I would use as a social worker handling grief counseling is mindfulness, which implies being cautious of one's situation. Mindfulness is an effective self-care strategy because it enables the social worker to improve the quality of his/her life through self-awareness (Sheir & Graham, 2011). This strategy will enable me to become aware of personal and environmental issues that could affect me and address them in a manner that improves my well-being. The second strategy I will utilize is maintaining a balance between personal life and work in order to avoid burnout or situations that could hinder my effectiveness as a social worker. Since a hospice environment is a relatively gloomy environment, the lack of a balance between personal life and work could provide an opportunity for the social worker suffer negatively from the environment. This strategy will be effective in self-care through ensuring that more emphasis is devoted to work at the expense of personal life.

References

Shier, M.L. & Graham, J.R. (2011). Mindfulness, Subjective Well-being, and Social Work: Insight into their Interconnection from Social Work Practitioners. Social Work Education, 30(1), 29-44.

Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.