Grief and Loss: Individual, Family, and Cultural PerspectivesAssignment # 1 Due Feb. 13thAssignment #2 Assignment #3 Final Paper : Due Week of April 30th, 2007The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work Course Number: SW 360K Instructor: Khris Ford, LPC Unique Number: 63980 Office Number: SSW 3.104A Semester: Spring, 2007 Office Phone: Email: 923-4690 [email protected] Time/Place Tues. 2:30-5:30 SSW 2.118 Office Hrs.: Tuesdays, 1:00-2:15 pm Grief and Loss: Individual, Family, and Cultural Perspectives I. Standardized Course Description This course will give students an opportunity to explore and understand their perceptions and beliefs of death and dying and how individual cultural differences influence that experience and prepare them for working with clients on grief and loss. The course examines issues of death and dying, grief processes, sense of meaning, including coping and adaptation for individuals and families as they deal with various kinds of loss. We will look at a range of factors (involving the individual, family, community, and society) that can impact, impede, or facilitate the experiences of individuals and families. Grief will be explored from a lifespan developmental perspective (from prenatal development through late adulthood) within the context of varied types of family and socio-cultural systems. An emphasis will be placed on both personal and professional applications of course information. The philosophy underlying this course is in line with the "Statements on Death, Dying, and Bereavement" (1994) of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. The introduction states: Death, dying, and bereavement are fundamental and pervasive aspects of the human experience. Individuals and societies can only achieve fullness of living by understanding and appreciating these realities. The absence of such understanding and appreciation may result in unnecessary suffering, loss of dignity, alienation, and diminished quality of living. Therefore, education about death, dying, and bereavement is an essential component of the educational process at all levels, both formal and informal. (IWG, 1994) Course Goals The aim of education about death, dying, and bereavement is to contribute to general education as a basis for personal development and responsible social participation. It must also contribute to the specific education of those who, as a result of personal or professional circumstances, are closely associated with death, dying, and bereavement (IWG, Death Studies, 1991: 59-65). 1This course strives to examine issues of grief and loss as they are experienced across the lifespan of the individual, within family contexts and across families' histories. Families are seen as systems in which relationships are influenced by meanings derived from actions and interactions, communication, beliefs and expectations. Family, individual and socio-cultural factors combine to affect grief and its place in our lives. Grief can occur in relation to many types of losses, including physical or psychological absence, as well as the loss of dreams and meaning. In this course we will view experiences of loss, such as deaths, as having the potential to concurrently produce change, deterioration and growth. Course Objectives: At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to: 1. Critically analyze and assess values and ethical dilemma’s regarding death, dying, grief and loss (such as end of life decision making). 2. Demonstrate and appraise diverse cultural, geographical, spiritual, ethnic, and psychosocial factors related to grief, loss, and mourning; 3. Demonstrate strategies designed to reduce discrimination and oppression regarding death and dying issues and explore the various determinants of grief and their impact on the tasks of mourning with various populations at risk; 4. Compare and contrast theories examining the developmental impact of bereavement, grief, and mourning within the life span of an individual, family, groups and communities; 5. Examine and critically evaluate various community referral networks for loss-specific services and policy implications of end of life decision making; 6. Identify their own loss histories and beliefs and differentiate their personal boundaries from their professional roles and apply a health perspective in assessments and clinical interventions; 7. Critically evaluate research issues relating to the emotional, behavioral, cognitive, physical and spiritual expressions that accompany bereavement, grief, and mourning; 8. Demonstrate practice competence in grief and loss issues within an ecological framework. Practice Skills and Methods This is an advanced elective undergraduate course that builds on both the human behavior courses and the practice courses taught in the undergraduate social work program. It is assumed that the student is acquainted with the impact of general stress on individuals, families, and communities and familiar with a variety of social work practice methods considered effective in work with these populations. Grief affects all ages and cultures; it is found in clients in most settings. Therefore, the work of this course is believed to be appropriate for direct service practitioners in any service (aging, health/mental health, and families/children) and for those who plan and direct services on an agency or community level. The practice skills students may anticipate developing as a result of completing this course are: 1. Conduct a grief assessment based on the particular characteristics of a loss due to 2death; 2. Apply the strengths perspective in developing a plan of care for grieving clients; 3. Plan and implement a bereavement support group; 4. Use the processes of grief to intervene clinically with individuals and families; and 5. Make effective referrals for loss-specific services. II. Teaching Methods: The teaching format will consist of experiential exercises, lectures, discussions, and audiovisual media to help students understand and integrate their own beliefs of death and dying into their social work practice. Throughout the course, students will be asked to focus on cultural influences that include gender, age, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, socio-economic, and language differences and individuals with developmental disabilities. Ethics and values associated with the dying process, death and grief