End of Life Care Essay Example for Free

End of Life Care Essay When a loved one is dying, conversations about the end of life can be uncomfortable and difficult. Still, discussing end-of-life care is important. Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to help your loved one make important end-of-life decisions — such as whether to remain at home, move to a nursing home or other facility, or seek hospice care. Also, you can work with your loved ones health care team to make sure your loved one remains comfortable at the end of life. Pain, anxiety and other end-of-life symptoms can often be treated. Even at the end of life, you can continue to support and nurture your relationship with your loved one. Simply being there can be an important source of strength and comfort for everyone. Grief When a loved one dies, grief can feel like a dagger in your heart. Often, grief triggers raw, intense emotions. You might wonder how youll ever pick up the pieces and heal your wounds — yet not feel as if youre betraying your loved ones memory. There are no quick fixes for the grief and anguish that follow a loved ones death. As you face your grief, acknowledge the pain and know that its part of the healing process. Take good care of yourself, and seek support from friends and loved ones. Although your life will never be quite the same, the searing pain of grief will eventually become less intense. Accepting your new normal can help you reconcile your losses and move on with your life. Hospice Care Also called: End-of-life care Hospice care is end-of-life care provided by health professionals and volunteers. They give medical, psychological and spiritual support. The goal of the care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort and dignity. The caregivers try to control pain and other symptoms so a person can remain as alert and comfortable as possible. Hospice programs also provide services to support a patients family. Usually, a hospice patient is expected to live 6 months or less. Hospice care can take place * At home * At a hospice center * In a hospital * In a skilled nursing facility - What is the role of the family? Family members often make sacrifices to care for relatives. Families provide care, pain management, and protect the patient. Although they may lack knowledge, caregivers gain satisfaction and pride from providing care, but are also at risk for depression and health problems related to caregiver stress (Haley Bailey, 1999: Haley et al., 2001; Weitzner, Haley, Chen, 2000). Some cultures may believe caring is the community’s duty and obligation. Caregivers benefit from social support, maintaining social activities and roles, and psychological interventions that teach coping skills. Most people want their family to be given choices about treatment and few wanted the physician to decide alone (Bradley, 1998). End of life: Caring for a dying loved one Whether you bring a dying loved one home or keep vigil at the hospital, you can take measures to provide comfort and relief at the end of life. Caring for a dying loved one isnt easy. Even when you know the end of life is approaching, you might not feel prepared. Understanding what to expect — and what you can do to increase your loved ones comfort — can help. * Choosing where to die Your loved one may have various choices for end-of-life care. Options may include: * Home care. Many people choose to die at home or in the home of a family member. You can assume the role of caregiver or hire home care services for support. Hospice care — services that help ensure the highest quality of life for whatever time remains — can be provided at home as well. * Inpatient care. Some people may prefer round-the-clock care at a nursing home, hospital or dedicated inpatient hospice facility. Hospice and palliative care — a holistic treatment approach intended to ease symptoms, relieve pain, and address spiritual and psychological concerns — can be provided in any of these environments. When you discuss the options with your loved one, consider his or her preferences as well as special physical, emotional and psychosocial needs. Evaluate how much support can be provided by family members and friends. For help determining the best option, talk with your loved ones health care team or a social worker. You might ask for a referral to palliative or hospice care specialists — health care providers trained in specific care for people nearing the end of life. * Spirituality at the end of life As your loved one approaches the end of life, he or she may talk about spirituality or the meaning of life. Dont force the subject — but if it comes up, encourage your loved one to explore and address his or her feelings. You might ask your loved one open-ended questions about his or her beliefs and experiences or most meaningful moments. You may want to invite a spiritual leader to visit your loved one as well. * Saying goodbye You can help your loved one communicate his or her final wishes for family and friends. Encourage your loved one to share his or her feelings, including thanks or forgiveness, and give others a chance to say goodbye. This may stimulate discussion about important, unsaid thoughts, which can be meaningful for everyone. Your loved one might also find it comforting to leave a legacy — such as creating a recording about his or her life or writing letters to loved ones, especially concerning important future events. * Recognizing when death is near Its difficult to predict exactly when someone will die. As death approaches, however, your loved one may show various signs and symptoms indicating that the end of life is near. Look for: * Restlessness and agitation. Your loved one may frequently change positions. * Withdrawal. Your loved one may no longer want to participate in social events or other favorite activities. * Drowsiness. Your loved one may spend most of his or her time asleep. * Loss of appetite. Your loved one may eat and drink less than usual. * Pauses or other changes in breathing. This may happen when your loved one is asleep or awake. Providing comfort The active phase of dying usually begins several days before death. Although you cant change whats happening to your loved one, you can help him or her feel as comfortable as possible — ideally with the support of palliative or hospice care specialists. Your loved one also may experience a brief, final surge of energy. Though it can be confusing to see your loved one with renewed vitality, remember that this is a normal part of dying. If it happens, take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy your loved one and say your final goodbyes. * Keeping vigil For many families, keeping vigil near a dying loved ones bed is a way to show support and love. If you decide to keep vigil, continue talking to your loved one. If you think your loved one would want to share this time with others, invite family members or close friends to show their support as well. Express your love, but also let your loved one know that its all right to let go. What is working? Mental health providers with palliative expertise can improve communication and resources. Mental health experts help providers understand the patient’s concerns and culture. They explain confusing medical terms and clarify CPR, pain management, and other treatments and encourage collaboration. Mental health providers also help relieve the common emotional distress and grief resulting from a terminal illness or care giving. COPING WITH BEREAVEMENT â€Å"IN OUR HEARTS, WE ALL KNOW THAT DEATH IS A PART OF LIFE. IN FACT, DEATH GIVES MEANING TO OUR EXISTENCE BECAUSE IT REMINDS US HOW PRECIOUS LIFE IS.† * Coping With Loss The loss of a loved one is life’s most stressful event and can cause a major emotional crisis. After the death of someone you love, you experience bereavement, which literally means â€Å"to be deprived by death.† Remember — It takes time to fully absorb the impact of a major loss. You never stop missing your loved one, but the pain eases after time and allows you to go on with your life. * Knowing What to Expect When a death takes place, you may experience a wide range of emotions, even when the death is expected. Many people report feeling an initial stage of numbness after first learning of a death, but there is no real order to the grieving process. Some emotions you may experience include: * Denial * Disbelief * Confusion * Shock * Sadness * Yearning * Anger * Humiliation * Despair * Guilt These feelings are normal and common reactions to loss. You may not be prepared for the intensity and duration of your emotions or how swiftly your moods may change. You may even begin to doubt the stability of your mental health. But be assured that these feelings are healthy and appropriate and will help you come to terms with your loss. * Mourning A Loved One It is not easy to cope after a loved one dies. You will mourn and grieve. Mourning is the natural process you go through to accept a major loss. Mourning may include religious traditions honoring the dead or gathering with friends and family to share your loss. Mourning is personal and may last months or years. Grieving is the outward expression of your loss. Your grief is likely to be expressed physically, emotionally, and psychologically. For instance, crying is a physical expression, while depression is a psychological expression. It is very important to allow yourself to express these feelings. Often, death is a subject that is avoided, ignored or denied. At first it may seem helpful to separate yourself from the pain, but you cannot avoid grieving forever. Someday those feelings will need to be resolved or they may cause physical or emotional illness. Many people report physical symptoms that accompany grief. Stomach pain, loss of appetite, intestinal upsets, sleep disturbances and loss of energy are all common symptoms of acute grief. Of all life’s stresses, mourning can seriously test your natural defense systems. Existing illnesses may worsen or new conditions may develop. Profound emotional reactions may occur. These reactions include anxiety attacks, chronic fatigue, depression and thoughts of suicide. An obsession with the deceased is also a common reaction to death. * Dealing with a Major Loss The death of a loved one is always difficult. Your reactions are influenced by the circumstances of a death, particularly when it is sudden or accidental. Your reactions are also influenced by your relationship with the person who died. A child’s death arouses an overwhelming sense of injustice — for lost potential, unfulfilled dreams and senseless suffering. Parents may feel responsible for the child’s death, no matter how irrational that may seem. Parents may also feel that they have lost a vital part of their own identity. A spouse’s death is very traumatic. In addition to the severe emotional shock, the death may cause a potential financial crisis if the spouse was the family’s main income source. The death may necessitate major social adjustments requiring the surviving spouse to parent alone, adjust to single life and maybe even return to work. Elderly people may be especially vulnerable when they lose a spouse because it means losing a lifetime of shared experiences. At this time, feelings of loneliness may be compounded by the death of close friends. A loss due to suicide can be among the most difficult losses to bear. They may leave the survivors with a tremendous burden of guilt, anger and shame. Survivors may even feel responsible for the death. Seeking counseling during the first weeks after the suicide is particularly beneficial and advisable. Living with Grief Coping with death is vital to your mental health. It is only natural to experience grief when a loved one dies. The best thing you can do is allow yourself to grieve. There are many ways to cope effectively with your pain. * Seek out caring people. Find relatives and friends who can understand your feelings of loss. Join support groups with others who are experiencing similar losses. * Express your feelings. Tell others how you are feeling; it will help you to work through the grieving process. * Take care of your health. Maintain regular contact with your family physician and be sure to eat well and get plenty of rest. Be aware of the danger of developing a dependence on medication or alcohol to deal with your grief. * Accept that life is for the living. It takes effort to begin to live again in the present and not dwell on the past. * Postpone major life changes. Try to hold off on making any major changes, such as moving, remarrying, changing jobs or having another child. You should give yourself time to adjust to your loss. * Be patient. It can take months or even years to absorb a major loss and accept your changed life. * Seek outside help when necessary. If your grief seems like it is too much to bear, seek professional assistance to help work through your grief. It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, to seek help.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning :: essays papers

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett at Coxhoe Hall, Durham County on March 6, 1806. She was one of twelve children. Her parents, Edward Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke Moulton-Barrett had eight sons and four daughters. Between 1809 and 1814 Elizabeth began writing poetry. In 1818 she wrote â€Å"The Battle of Marathon† and in 1820 her father had it published. When Elizabeth was fifteen years of age, she developed an illness and was prescribed Opium, which began her lifelong Opium habit. Elizabeth’s first published work was â€Å"The Rose and Zephyr† in 1825 at the age of twenty-one. A year later, she published An Essay on Mind. Both publications were anonymous and were financially supported by her family. Her father assisted in getting them both published. Elizabeth had commented later in her career that these works were â€Å"Pope’s Homer done over again, or rather redone†. She obviously thought very little of the early part of her career. Her Mother passed away in 1828 and Elizabeth began studying classical literature under H.S. Boyd. Her next publication was Prometheus Bound, published in 1833 and once again, anonymously. This translation was from the Greek playwright, Aeschylus. Boyd re-ignited an interest of Elizabeth’s since childhood, in Greek literature and studies. During her youth, Elizabeth was self- taught in the area of literature. She read Paradise Lost, Dante’s Inferno and the Old Testament, in Hebrew, which was obviously the backdrop for Prometheus Bound. In 1837 Elizabeth’s health deteriorated when she burst a blood vessel affecting her lungs; Elizabeth became an invalid. One year later, Elizabeth published her first volume of poetry under her own name, The Seraphim and Other Poems. This work received favorable reviews, which in turn, brought about a correspondence with Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Poe. Poe even wrote an introduction in Elizabeth’s two-volume edition of poetry Poems in 1844. She truly began her literary career in 1838. Elizabeth moved to Torquay for her health and was often accompanied by different family members but her favorite was her brother, Edward. Elizabeth’s uncle passed away that sa me year leaving her financially secure. In 1840, Edward drowned in Babbacombe Bay off Torquay. She then wrote â€Å"De Profundis† expressing her grief. In 1840, Elizabeth wrote â€Å"The Cry of the Children†. In 1841 she returned to London, still an invalid, and began working on reviews, articles, and translations.

“On Being Sane in Insane Places” Essay

It was very interesting to read about Rosenhan’s study and how psychiatrists, who go through big coursework and training, could wrongly classify a patient. It surprised me how some psychiatrists couldn’t say they don’t know what’s wrong with patients instead they could possibly diagnose someone as insane. Though reading this chapter I found the strange things from Rosenhan’s study that was hard to believe. Slater states, â€Å"The strange thing was, the other patients seemed to know Rosenhan was normal, even while the doctors did not.† (69). I believe patients can know that better than doctors because they are in that situation already and some doctors don’t analyze their patients carefully to know what’s actually happening with them. For example, if someone studies about one culture doesn’t mean that person knows way better that person who actually lives with that culture. Both chapters I found interesting because it relates to my life very well. I found out Elliot Aronson, Darley and Latane all kind of try to show that people needs to find reason for their actions. I believe each person as a human have to help everyone no matter what. Darley and Latane’s mention is about how to help someone in an emergency that relates with Catherine Genovse murder. Slater says, â€Å"You must interpret the event as one in which help is needed† (95). We read about Catherine’s murder and saw that after she had asked for help, someone yelled, leave that girl alone, instead of helping, and the only thing that happened was that the killer ran away (95). I agree with Darley and Latane’s that we need to know which help is needed and what help is not. The person may have helped with getting the killer away, but Catherine needed the help the most, so she wouldn’t die. I been in so many situations that someone needed my help and I helped as much as I could, but knowing what helped was needed help me a lot. Leon Festinger talked about how people really pay attention to what is going on in their life and around them. I think some people just pay attention to what they want. Its true most of the people like to listen to people who agree with them and ignore who doesn’t. The chapter also discussed how people can believe in something they can’t prove such as God working through  a person. I think even for believing a god it has many prove to make a person to believe it. I believe for believing on something need to have something as prove. This section is a really great one however I didn’t prefer how the experiments were described. I additionally didn’t’ prefer the experiments and there result. Harlow was a fascinating man and I preferred how the author discusses the experimenter and how they grew up on the grounds that it permits me to understand their conclusions about their examinations and why they are imperative to them. I thought it was interesting that the monkeys adored the cover yet when they were displayed a face they might be scared and yell or cry about it. What I establish fascinating was that when they were babies they existed like a typical life however when they got older they went insane. A percentage of the monkeys were introducing a mental imbalance, gnawing them, and one of the monkeys bit off his hands. This discovering was entertaining since Harlow was supporting the surrogate moms and this wound up going terrible for him. I wish the author might stick more to the investigations and less to her editorializing. I can’t agree with what Zola-Morgan does say â€Å"our human lives are intrinsically more valuable; monkey studies yield information that helps those lives† (153). Of course humans are more valuable than the monkeys, but still monkeys are animals and I think it’s so cruel to hurts them only because to do the experiment. If that kind of research saved the life of loved then I will be okay with that. I still feel awful with doing that type of experiment on poor animals that didn’t do nothing wrong.   This is another important finding because it just shows that psychiatrists may not have any idea about what they are doing, but no one questions them because of their authority. Of course after whom goes through big coursework and training, don’t expect someone to tell them they are wrong but from Rosenhan’s study they may be wrong too.

Do You Agree with the View That Gandhi’s Campaign Methods...

It’s clear that Gandhi’s campaigns of non-cooperation and attending political meetings with high ranked British officials during the early 1930s, were hugely significant as they mounted pressure on the Raj, leaving the British with no other alternative than to make concessions towards the nationalists. However, Purna Swaraj wasn’t achieved by Gandhi’s campaigns in the 1930s, due to the limitations of his methods as he was unable to cooperate and negotiate with the British. Conversely, demands for nationalism increased across India and the British began to lose any moral authority they had over the Indians. Gandhi’s methods of non-violent, civil disobedience were hugely effective in turning many Indians against British rule, increasing†¦show more content†¦Gandhi directly attacked the Raj as he declared it a ‘crime’ to submit to its rule in hope he could connect with the Indians and encourage them to follow his lead. He successfully did this as a result of the Salt March. Although only 78 of his supporters followed him on the entire march, many other Indians got involved. On route of the march, many Indian officials resigned from their posts. Elsewhere, another march was organised in South India were protests in Bombay, the North West Frontier Province and 2000 non-violent demonstrators at a salt production plant in Dharasana were attacked to the ground by police. This again is evidence of the ‘inhuman rule’ Gandhi speaks about in his declaration, and consequently shows why the British lost a lot of moral authority over the Indians. Source 2 explicitly shows that Gandhi’s non-violent campaign methods were effective at challenging the Raj and allowing them no other option that to begin making political concessions towards the activists. It adds a lot of weight to source 1 as it shows the effectiveness of Gandhi’s campaigns in relation to the British response. Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India at the time, recognised that ‘political dialogue’ was the only way forward from the current position in 1931, due to theShow MoreRelatedLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesAttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namely by citing his name, the book title, and the relevant page numbers (but not in any way that suggests that the book Logical Reasoning or its author endorse you or your use of the work). (2) Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial purposesRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 PagesRights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edmonds, Ennis Barrington. Rastafari : from outcasts to culture bearers / Ennis Barrington Edmonds. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513376-5 1. Rastafari movement. 2. Jamaica—Religious life and customs. I. Title. BL2532.R37 E36Read MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesedited by Michael Peter Adas for the American Historical Association. p. cm.—(Critical perspectives on the past) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-4399-0269-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4399-0270-7 (paper : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4399-0271-4 (electronic) 1. History, Modern—20th century. 2. Twentieth century. 3. Social history—20th century. 4. World politics—20th century. I. Adas, Michael, 1943– II. American Historical Association. D421.E77 2010 909.82—dc22 2009052961