Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy
"When we select a topic for each year’s teleconference and accompanying book, a key consideration is how we can help hospices broaden their community outreach. I believe that hospice has many contributions to make to a community, primarily as the basic resource for bereavement counseling, but also as a major influence in increasing patient autonomy in the health
system. This year’s topic, Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy, also is designed to give local hospices an opportunity to make known their capabilities in helping their communities when terrible events occur."
--Jack D. Gordon, Chairman and CEO, HFA
Contents
Foreword: Jack D. Gordon
I. Dimensions of Public Tragedy
- 1. What Makes a Tragedy Public? Kenneth J. Doka
2. 9/11: A Grief Therapist's Journal Sherry R. Schachter
3. Hurricane Andrew Rick Eyerdam
4. Looking Back at Columbine Larry Beresford
5. When a Public Figure Dies William M. Lamers
II. Responses to Public Tragedy
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6. Loss, Grief, and Trauma in Public Tragedy Charles A. Corr
7. Effects of Public Tragedy on First Responders Dana G. Cable & Terry L. Martin
8. Public Grief and the News Media Paul R. Dolan
9. Different Faiths, Different Perceptions of Public Tragedy Janice Harris Lord, Melissa Hook & Sharon English
10. Funeral Directors and Public Tragedy Elizabeth Bradley & LaVone Hazell
III. Coping with Public Tragedy
- 11. Critical Incident Stress Management and Other Crisis Counseling
Approaches Louis A. Gamino
12. Talking to Children about Terrorism Linda Goldman
13. Schools, Children and Public Tragedy Barbara L. Bouton
14. Meaning Making in the Wake of Public Tragedy David A. Thompson & Edward J. Holland
15. Memorialization, Ritual and Public Tragedy Kenneth J. Doka
16. A Healing Ritual at Yankee Stadium David Benke
17. Public Tragedy and the Arts Sandra Bertman
18. Victim Advocacy in the Aftermath of Tragedy Marlene A. Young
19. Lessons from Combat Veterans (PDF) Alfonso R. Batres
20. Workplace Interventions Rachel E. Kaul
21. Public Tragedy and Complicated Mourning Therese A. Rando
IV. The Role of Hospice in Public Tragedy
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22. Collaborating with Relief Agencies: A Guide for Hospice
Nadine Reimer Penner
23. Hospice: A Resource in Community Tragedies Marcia Lattanzi-Licht
Resources Jacqueline Garrick
Jack D. Gordon
Chairman, Hospice Foundation of America
The year 2003 is a momentous one for both the hospice movement and Hospice Foundation of America. It is the 20th year of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. In 1983, Congress formally recognized the importance of compassionate care for the dying by institutionalizing hospice as a reimbursable service. One of the core services of hospice is the commitment to ongoing bereavement counseling to the family. In fact, hospice is the only Medicare benefit that continues service to the family for up to a year after the death of the patient.
In the 20 years since the start of the Medicare benefit, and because of the growing societal importance of bereavement services, hospices have become an important community resource on grief and bereavement. Maintaining a high level of quality in grief counseling, spiritual care, and emotional support is difficult to attain. To assist in that, Hospice Foundation of America provides as one of its central services innovative free or low-cost educational opportunities for grief counselors.
The year 2003 also finds HFA celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Living With Grief® teleconference series, of which this book is the companion volume. The application of bereavement services has evolved in many ways over the past decade, and we at HFA are proud that this series has been a part of that evolution. When we select a topic for each year's teleconference and accompanying book, a key consideration is how we can help hospices broaden their community outreach. I believe that hospice has many contributions to make to a community, primarily as the basic resource for bereavement counseling, but also as a major influence in increasing patient autonomy in the health system.
This year's topic, Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy, also is designed to give local hospices an opportunity to make known their capabilities in helping their communities when terrible events occur. The chapter by Marcia Lattanzi-Licht reviews hospice participation in a number of community disasters. It is a record in which everyone involved in the hospice movement can take pride.
From television, radio, and daily newspapers, we get detailed and sometimes graphic accounts of the results of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires, as well as man-made disasters such as multiple shootings, auto accidents, and, of course, the devastating terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
These events affect everyone, because there is always the thought, there but for the grace of God, go I. So when we deal with such events, we are concerned about the feelings and thoughts of everyone including, obviously, family and loved ones. That is what makes this topic such a difficult one to understand. We bring our own experiences, as well as our own attitudes toward life and death, to the attempt to understand what has happened. What we bring is not only our impression of the event, but also the memories and fears that it stimulates. Because everyone's experience is different, we have to think hard to arrive at a common basis for discussing how we can help others and ourselves.
It is the Foundation's hope that a careful reading of this book will provide readers with a better understanding of the nature of this kind of trauma. Ideally, we would never again have to face this problem, but we know that is not possible. Being better prepared can only make the aftermath less disrupting for everyone affected.
