1THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANSCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SW 617, Death, Loss and Grief FOLEY, SALLIE Fall, 2002 Office Phone: 936.6611 Leave messages at this phone e-mail: [email protected] (answered in evenings, M-F and at least once on weekends) Home Phone: (734) 663-9618 Office Hours: Wednesdays, 8-9 and 12-1 and by appointment Class Meets: Wednesdays, 9-12 "While I thought I was learning how to live, I was learning how to die." Leonardo da Vinci Life must go on And the dead be forgotten; Life must go on, Though good men die. Anne, eat your breakfast; Dan, take your medicine; Life must go on; I forget just why. Edna St. Vincent Millay ". . . more light . . ." Goethe (Last words spoken before dying.) “Life is measured not by its length, but by its depth.” Mary Fisher2 GENERAL INFORMATION: This course will meet Wednesdays, 9-12. In class, you will receive: 1. an extensive syllabus; 2. a bibliography on books and articles about death, loss and grief; 3. handouts pertaining to theory and clinical practice with the dying and bereaved. I have an office in the School of Social Work Building (#2798) and maintain office hours there on Wednesdays and Fridays. . Please feel free to make appointments with me throughout the semester if you have questions or concerns. I will always be in my office before class, and after class. COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course addresses the theoretical framework of human loss and grief from a culturally and philosophically diverse perspective. It seeks to provide information about why and how humans grieve and how grieving is affected by type of loss, socioeconomic and cultural factors, individual personality and family functioning. Attention is focused on life span development and the meaning of death and loss at different ages. Various types of loss are discussed from an individual, family and socio/cultural perspective. The importance of understanding trauma and its relationship to grief and loss will be addressed. Coping and resiliency in loss are explored, emphasizing the diversity of human response and focusing on the significance of social groups in integrating loss. The formation and practice of rituals, and diversity in religious and spiritual experience as a component of coping with loss will be discussed. COURSE OUTLINE: This course will begin with an overview of the historical treatment of death and bereavement in dominant United States culture. Contemporary attitudes about death and grief will be examined in this context and will include the examination of current themes in understanding dying and bereaved persons. Significant attention will be placed on understanding the diversity of reactions to death, loss, and grief within different religious and ethnic/cultural groups. The impact of poverty on dying and bereavement will be discussed as well as the policy decisions that direct funding as it impacts dying individuals and their families. The ethical debates in the right-to-die movement and social issues about quality of life will be explored. Explanatory models for bereavement and grief will be discussed including: psychoanalytic models, attachment models, stress and crisis models, cognitive and behavior models, illness and disease models, sociobiological models, and holistic models. Developmental approaches to understanding chronic illness, and individual and family functioning while dying will be addressed as well as current standards of care in social work involvement with the dying person and family. The function of health care systems for the dying and funeral care for the dead will be discussed. Social organizations for the dying and bereaved will be explored. Gender differences in grieving, immigration and cultural losses, responses to war and natural3disasters will also be discussed. The theory of complicated mourning will be introduced and will be related both to developmental theory and trauma theory. Examples of complicated mourning will be discussed and will include the phenomena of disenfranchised and stigmatized loss. The identification and assessment of symptoms of complicated mourning will be introduced. Death resulting from violence, like homicide or suicide, and violence in communities and its impact on a person’s capacity to grieve will be explored. Counseling the dying and grieving and its impact on the social worker will be discussed, as well as ways that professionals can care for themselves. The special concerns of children and loss will be examined. Aging, grief, and loss will be discussed and current research about losses in aging will be addressed. Post traumatic stress disorder as a response to traumatized loss will be discussed. The class will also examine broader cultural implications for living with loss, including responses to cultural genocide (both historically and currently). A final exploration into the development of grief responses on an individual and communal level will be made. COURSE DESIGN: Lecture and class discussion with video and guest presentations to highlight specific topics. RELATIONSHIP TO FOUR CURRICULAR THEMES: Multiculturalism and Diversity Themes are addressed through the discussion of worker-client differences and power/privilege differentials based on culture, ethnicity, race, gender, age, and social class. Social system and case examples, possible interventions and readings will reflect this theme. Social Change and Social Justice are addressed through discussion of differences between problems that are responsive to interpersonal practice interventions and those which result from poverty, discrimination and disenfranchisement and require systemic as well as individual interventions. Promotion and Prevention are addressed through identification of ways to provide early intervention, guidance and advocacy within systems, methods of preventing or mitigating later problems in loss and bereavement, and through discussion of intervention theories and health care and social policies which support adaptive responses to loss that enhance later adjustment. Behavioral and Social Sciences Research informs the course, drawing especially on current research in the following areas: bereavement and complicated mourning, attachment and developmental requirements, response to trauma and maltreatment, and resiliency/coping/adaptation. COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course,