How Life Events Shape Mental Health and Perspective Assignment Sample

Introduction - A Concise Analysis of the Impact of Significant Life Events on Mental Health and Wellbeing

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The purpose of thisassignment will assist the reader to understand the positive and negative impacts of significant life events effects on individuals. Explaining how the body responds to grief and physical and psychological process at the time of bereavement as well as determining the support that can be available through organisations and family. This essay will also to provide to a clear understanding of policies, procedures and network that support the individuals. Evaluating the suitability of external sources that. A provide support within this circumstance. Finally, it will be reflecting on my own personal contribution and self-contribution and self-contribution on how to improve the support that is given by organisations for individuals from significant life events.

Significant life events are those events that occur in the lifespan of an individual without anyprior affirmation or eventuality. Significant life events impacts on lifestyles and mental or emotional state of mind of an individual empirically.The significant life events impact positively and negatively towards the individuals. The positive impact can be reflected as alterations in behaviours and personal preferences of the individual. Examples of positive impacts on an individual may be marriage, professional achievements, birth of a baby, etc. The individual change their behaviours with acceptance for the loss and grief suffered and grown emotionally as an individual. These may be result of negative impact. Such negative impacts may be result of death in family, depression, divorce, disability, etc.

Significant life events often impact the emotional and mental state of mind for an individual. The loss of a belovedor a family member results in depression or greater impacts of bereavement.Significant life events also impact on the personal and social lifestyles of the individual. As in many cases, the individual isimpaired to attend social gatherings and commit towards the personal duties as a result of bereavement and depression form the significant life event.Such significant life events may result in various responses affecting the cognitive, behavioural, emotional and social changes.

• Cognitive responses can be a loss of concentration, poor memory or judgment, negative thoughts and endless worrying.These responses include for the mental response of the immediate family members and the society. The response of these members towards the significant life events and the individuals in the mentals sense and acceptance is required. The cognitive responses accommodate for an understanding of the pain and suffering of these individuals and implying the reactions which provide with support to the affected individual.
• Phycological responses are when the body is affected by aches and pains, bowel disorders chest pain, rapid heartbeat, loss of sex drive and frequent colds.These responses include for the physical response of the society and the immediate family towards the significant life events.
• Physical responses can be identified as a helping the affected individual in undertaking the daily activities and functions. In some cases, the affected individual is unable to function effectively and undertake personal responsibilities.In these cases, physical aid is required in the accomplishing the required tasks. The physical aid could be identified as bathing, feeding and medical care etc.
• Behavioural responses develop irregular eating patterns, poor sleeping habits, less engagement with others, nail-biting, grinding teeth or using alcohol on drugs to feel relief. The behavioural responses demonstrate for either acceptance or denial from the possible group. The behavioural responses include for mental responses of the immediate society and the family members. These responses are required to be assessed and evaluated in order to provide with effective care services. The denial of these behavioural changes from the society results in build-up increased pressure and stress for the affected individual. These individuals require acceptance in order to recover in an effective manner.
• Social responses depending on the individuals and how they might integrate into society influences the way they react towards their culture, social values and attitudes. E.g. of negative effects and social withdrawal isolation less engagement of own interest and activities, becoming suspicious and feeling resentments toward others.
• Emotional responses cause individualsto become agitated, short-tempered, loneliness feeling isolated and immense grief or cry. The emotional responses can be accessed through the acceptance and understanding of the immediate society members and the family members towards the emotional stability and responses of the individual. The emotional responses towards this affected individualare required as providing with support and condolence to the individual in order to maintain stability for these affected individuals.
• Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something that’s important to you. (WebMD,2018) grieving is natural and healthy when facing a significant loss.Elizabeth Kobler-Ross has introduced a model that has acknowledged five stages of the process when grieving.These are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.
• Denialis when we may respond at first by being paralysed with shock or blanketed in numbness ( Ross and Kessler,2005). It is followed by Angerwhich involves questioning oneself, resentment, rage and feeling guilt. The feelings of Anger eventually starts to fade, and the process shifts to the stage of healing. This stage is the Bargaining stage where the individuals starts self-evaluation. It may take the form of temporary truce. Depression is the next stage under which the individual feels intense sorrow, depressed and suffers from helplessness and anxiety. The last stage is acceptance. In this stage, the individuals are lot calmer with the help of other sources and they acknowledge the event.

In the given case, Sue and Tom lost their 10-year-old daughter.Tom observed that Sue is facing difficulties in executing the daily chores and duties. The impact in psychological dimensions can be observed through Sue being overprotective for her son David and restricting him in everything (Pieper, et. al., 2013). In this case, Tom reached the final stage of ‘Acceptance’ of Elizabeth Kober-Ross Model whereas Sue was not recovering from the second stage.(AC.1.1.)

The possible groups for an individual include immediate family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and social networks.The society is empirically impacted by the occurrence of significant life events such as bereavement or the grieving process of an individual.The response of groups can be both positive and negative(Wang, 2012). A positive response includes proper support and guidance in order to aid the individual to cope up from the loss. It also includes personal attention and effective medical or emotional care which supports for the wellbeing of the individual.

A negative response may be depicted by non-acceptance of the society and the community members towards the grieving processes and the anger issueindividual displays as a result of significant life events (James and Jackman, 2017).Also, change in behaviours and imparity in the fulfilling the social and personal duty may be observed a burden on the shoulder of the immediate family and the friends of an individual.

Domains of wellbeing can be used to address the positive response. It includes physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, social, and financial support.

The friends, people and societyplay an effective role in the support the grieved individual as they act as the support system to them. Theycan help them financially, physically, emotionally and mentally. They can make the individual cope with the situation or event that took place with them by motivating them and make them deal with the situation.The emotional support can be provided by friends or familyby way of listening, talking and understanding the grief of the people who are experiencing it. They can also contribute to the physical work in terms of household work, activities and school runs. The family and friends can also contribute to the financial needs by helping in paying medical bills and other expenses.

The support provided can also be social and spiritual support. The friends, and other members of community of person in grief can motivate or encourage such person to participate in various activities of society and community to help him come out of grief.These social groups respond in various manners as per their preferences. The acceptance towards behaviours and irregular or abrupt demands can be considered a positive manner. The ignorance and disregard of the emotional stability and dis balance in the individual personality is an unfavourable response.

The local church, mosque or other centres of culture can provide an individual with spiritual support by helping them in connecting with God and related beliefs and in required funeral arrangements as per the religion. The co-workers can also provide support in terms of ensuring sympathy, a more understanding work culture or covering shifts.Such culture will help the person in grief to come out of grief and move to the acceptance stage of their loss.

In given case, the positive attitude of the society helpedTom and Sue to take care of their child in a better manner by making them move on from their past event. The family and society should further support them in a better way by not ignoring them and helping them in every aspect.This will help Tom and Sue to get over from the grief and lead to high provide effective care to their child and provide the best parenting.In Sue’s case, a positive response was also depicted by the managers of Sue who was providing her with flexible working timings and leaves.(AC.1.2.)

The impact of significant life events on the health and social care individuals can be observed in three different dimensions named asphysical, psychological and social impact.The physical impact can be observed with impairment of the individual to accomplish the dailyactivities and functions.The social impact can be observed insocietyas the members may feel obliged to take care of the individual. The nurses and the healthcare services providers are impacted by significant life events. Due to an emotional bond between the service users and the providers, the nurses are affected with the significant life events of death or bereavement. The bond that exists with the patients and nurses make the emotionally weak and any mis happening leads to high level of stress. Various signs and symptoms are visible in nurses regarding their emotional fatigue such as improper management of work, high stress, low level of concentration, improper quality care provided to patients, the rigid nature of the nurses etc. The grief of the nurses can result inbad behaviour and ineffective care provided to the individual. This results into the emotional burn out on the people that made the nurse take off from the work so that she can easily move out from her stress and depression.

There are circumstances when the death of a patient may remind the healthcare professionals or nurses of someone close to them. This makes them vulnerable, emotionally withdrawn and isolated affecting their cognitive, social and behavioural responses. Such ‘unresolved grief’ can impact their family and professional life and their ability to concentrate making them uncompassionate towards their patients. This may also result in compromises in taking care of patients and it may result in a patient feeling neglected. The grief may impact their personal life, ruin their relationships, impact their relationships with loved ones negatively and may make them socially withdrawn. However, all such situations of grief may be avoiding if they are identified and manged in an efficient manner. The stage of the grief must be identified, and regular training must be provided to healthcare professionals to deal with the grief.

In the given case, the nurse who use to took care of Jill, take off from her work after her death so that she can overcome from the grief and work accordingly. The organizations could have helped her in dealing with her grief by providing her flexible working hours and additional support such as counselling.(AC.1.3.)

There are various policies and procedures established by laws, regulations and standards which require the hospitals and health care organizations to provide effective services to the individuals and their social network who lost their family member or friend. The Standards of Bereavement care 2001/2012, Palliative Care Review, 2011, Palliative Care Guidance (PCG), Shaping Bereavement Care, 2010 and National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Cancer are various standards and procedures that must be followed by professionals for providing effective services (De la Morena, and Cruzado, 2013).

All the organizations providing care setting services are required to follow a defined procedure after a death has occurred. Such procedure shall begin with notifying the individual’s GP or doctor to certify the death and record its time and the persons present at that time. Notify an appropriate person or next-of-kin in accordance with the wishes previously ascertained. Perform last office according to religious and personal beliefs. Lastly, collect and record personal belongings to be handed over to relatives

• Standards of Bereavement Care 2001: Under these standards, guidelines have been established in context of policies and procedures to be followed and for making the standards more effective, amendments were introduced to the standards in 2012. These standards follow the principles of equality, respect, safety, quality and diversity in providing support services to the individuals in need. It has been analysed that 7-10% of individuals in need can be assisted in accordance to these standards and approximately 2-4% require further care and support (Cozza, et, al. 2016). Unfortunately, the standards consist the principle of equality but under policies and procedures followed by the organisations, access to older people is often difficult as compared to younger people. In particular, such access is limited in cases where the older people suffer from life threatening diseases.
• Palliative Care Funding Review 2011: This is a policy under which the support is provided to individuals through holistic approach. Under this approach, the psychological, spiritual, emotional, physical needs of an individual are assessed are given tailored treatment for managing their side-effects and symptoms. Based on a review conducted in 2011, almost 457,000 people need palliative support but amongst them, almost 92000 are not in reach. For making this policy efficient, better coordination is required for providing patient care services. The implementation of policy results in inefficiency when the patients do not want to hear about their sickness or do not cooperate in the treatments suggested by the healthcare professionals (James, and Jackman, 2017).
• Shaping Bereavement Care, 2010: Under this policy, the main focus is on providing training and education to staff members when they are exposed to cases of bereavement on a regular basis. For increasing the efficiency of bereavement care, it is important to provide services with more accuracy, better management of documents and the families of individuals in need must be granted access to the required documents (Burke, et.al., 2015). However, the effectiveness of this policy can be improved if the processes of communication in organization are smooth and effective and the organizations starts its working based on feedback and recommendations. There must be established guidelines so as to promote consistent approach.
• End of Life Care Strategy, 2008: This strategy was introduced by Government for promoting high quality in UK for all the old age people. Through this strategy, various choices are provided to people in relation to where they would live in their last days and die. The adults under this strategy are provided with advanced and progressive care for all the settings. The biggest challenges for the service providers under this scheme include ensuring care and dignity of people served. The services provided under this strategy were effective, but they lacked in efficiency. They are taking the needs of older care as only health related and social doing rather than following a holistic and personalised approach (Davidson, and Gentry, 2013)

In the case of Sue, she was not provided the services by Bereavement Care but there could be adjustments made in her working days and hours so as to support her to some extent. (AC.2.1.)

There is various kind of support and that can be provided by social group and networks to individuals experiencing significant life events. Such support may vary from person to person depending upon his needs and preferences.The support provided may be in form of physical, emotional, financial and spiritual. The social networks that provide such support may include nurses, GP, social workers, and carers.The care home residents and their staff, volunteers, the staff of health and social care organizations, family members and carers, including children are the people that are affected by a death (Goyal, et.al., 2014). For providing the support to affected people, the communications must be made in a sensitive way and immediate and ongoing bereavement must be offered.

Psychologists provide the support to an individual in coping up with issues relating to mental health mainly focusing on cognitive behavior therapy, medications, reducing anxiety and stress. Physiotherapists support the individuals in issues relating to physical pain such as neck, shoulder, knee or other pain-related symptoms of the body by offering them therapeutic exercises and massages. Advocates and Solicitors can help the individuals by providing them support and advice in matters relating to property inheritance and act as a liaison between healthcare professionals and patients.The Alzheimer Society provides support services to people suffering from dementia. Such support is provided by providing 24-hour helpline services, personalized care packages, andsuch others. MacMillan Cancer Support provides support services to the people affected by cancer. Such support is provided financially and advice on work-related problems (Cozza, et, al. 2016)

In the given case scenario, the parents of Tom and Sue need support due to a significant life event. They lost their 10-year-old daughter to leukemia and as a result, they are suffering from bereavement. They are provided support by the social networks and other external networks for moving out of the situation. The support was provided in the following manner:

• Professional Counselling: The professional counseling helps people facing bereavement due to the traumatic death of their loved ones. Such death may result in various emotions such as isolation, shock, loneliness, guilt, anger and many more. This may also lead to sleepless nights and the people suffering from such problems need support. In professional counselling, there is one-to-one counseling by counselors or psychotherapists who listen and help people understand and explore their feelings. They provide emotional support to the affected persons. In the given case, Sue was suggested by her husband Tom to attend Professional Counselling so as to recover from the significant life event. This counseling helped her as after these sessions, she was capable of accepting the death of her daughter. This emotional support helped her in getting back to a normal life (Goldman, 2015).
• External support: There are various external organizations that provide emotional, and financial support to people suffering from significant life events. Such organizations may include ‘The compassionate Friend’ which provides emotional support to people who have lost their child to death (Compassion, 2017).

Physical Support can be provided by various health care professionals such as social workers, GP, community nurses, and various other organizations. They may help in reducing the physical strains impacts that the individual may face. The support to such individuals extends to emotional and financial support which is provided by various organizations such as MacMillan Cancer Support which aims to provide support to people in making informed decisions and ensure coordinated care. The emotional support provided may also include counseling which is provided by a counselor or psychiatrist (Bevan, et.al., 2014).The spiritual support is provided by chaplaincy services to individuals at the time of death or after death in regard to their believes and faith.

Holistic Assessment and Support

• Holistic assessment : Holistic assessment is an assessment of a client for evaluating all the domains of a patient including physical, social, spiritual, psychological, cultural and environmental. This assessment helps in identifying the abilities, preferences, self-assessment and views of a patient. The healthcare organizations and authorities use this assessment for drawing conclusions on risks and needs of patient and references are made according to this assessment.The assessment of a patient must be comprehensive and must be conducted with the assistance of health and social care professionals and appropriate support services.
• Holistic support : Holistic support provided to a patient can be related to needs and preferences of patients as identified through the assessment and the associated treatment, care and support.The support provided to the individuals must be tailored according to their needs. Each individual must be provided with a personalised care plan for managing symptoms and side effects.
• The Deaf Society: It is a deaf-led charity which is focussed on ensuring that the deaf living in UK are provided equal rights and opportunities. The main aim of this charity organization is to ensure that the deaf people have access to public services and that they adapt all the skills available for hearing purposes. This organization however has no relevance in case of Tom and Sue as they lost their child to cancer and there was no hearing disability that they were facing.
• Age UK: It is a charitable organization in UK which aims to provide support to people in their old age. Their main aim is to provide motivation and support to aged people in leading their lives. In given case scenario, Tom and Sue are not eligible to take support from this organization as their needs do not match the services provided by organization.
• Motor Neurone Disease Association: It is British charitable organisation providing support to the persons affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is a form of motor neurone disease. The main aim of the group is to coordinate support, care and research for people eligible to avail services of this organization. In given case scenario, Sue and Tom are not in need of support provided by this organization as they have faced significant life event and are not affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In the given case, Sue received support from ‘Shaping the Bereavement’ which did not result in her improvement. This financial and emotional support was not sufficient for her and therefore she was suggested for professional services. Sue felt relieved after counseling as her counselor made her realize it is normal for someone to be struck with grief, and how a routine life may be impacted as a result of facing any significant life events.

Sue needed emotional and psychological support even after she was provided support from Shaping the Bereavement. She was not able to recover from the loss of her daughter and therefore she neededreferral. In her situation, she needed a holistic assessment for the appropriate treatment.(AC.2.2.)

Individuals who are bereaved or grieving may need professional support. Such professional support can be provided from various external sources. These external sources include commissioners, psychiatrists, legal advisors such as solicitors or advocates, accountants, cultural, religious and spiritual agencies, counselors, psychotherapists, and psychologists. These healthcare organizations exercise due care and consideration when dealing with individuals affected by significant life events. Such external sources provide holistic and other support to the affected individuals (Burke, et.al., 2015).

The external agencies and organizations provide holistic support. For the purpose of providing holistic support, the healthcare professionals are required to conduct the holistic assessment. Under this assessment, the psychological, spiritual, social, cultural, environmental need and preferences of an individual are assessed. Such an assessment is necessary so that the treatment can be tailored according to the needs of individual and a personalized care plan could be developed for managing symptoms and side-effects.

In the situations of bereavement, theirare various organizations that provide support to people who are affected by significant life events. There are different life events that may have adverse impacts on the physical, mental, and social health of a human being. In such situations, they need all kinds of support which may be in form of finances, emotional support, psychological support or medical support. There may be different organizations from whom support can be sought. However, such organizations may or may not be suitable for the person affected by significant life events. The organizations also provide support based on the needs of circumstances of every person. The suitability of support provided by external sources can be evaluated as follows:

• Bereaved Partners Support Group: This is a registered charity group who aims to provide support to people affected by significant life events. Such significant event is losing the loved ones to cancer. This group provides support by managing people with similar experiences to share their stories and experiences. This group believes that talking helps in overcoming any bereavement and it is open to all people affected by the death of a loved one due to cancer. It is a mutual support group. These support groups help people suffering from bereavement to talk to someone who is much forward in the healing process.The parents who face significant life events as they lose their child can benefit from this support group. In this group, the parents are able to discuss their experience with other people and know about other people’s experience who are going through the same phase in their lives. This kind of support is most beneficial in the initial stage of bereavement as the affected persons face problems accepting the death of their loves ones. Through the support group, they are able to accept that death and are able to arrive at a mindset of coping with the circumstances. However, it may sometimes be discouraging for people in the initial stage of healing.In given case scenario, Sue and Tom can avail the services provided by this organization as it provides bereavement services to someone who loses their loved one to cancer and Sue and Tom lost their daughter to cancer. Therefore, it is a suitable organization in their case (Näppä, et.al., 2016).
• Shaping the Bereavement: It is an organizationwhich recognizes quality bereavement care and provide evidence-based training to the staff members for enabling them to provide appropriate support to bereaved carers and relatives.It provides actions-based support including social, emotional and spiritual support to people who face death in their family or relatives. The organizationsadvice on the actions to be taken and the emotions that may be faced by an affected person.The initial phase of bereavement for parents is most crucial. They need support and this organization can provides the support to parents in initial times by ensuring that their emotional, social and spiritual needs are taken care of.In the given case scenario, after the death of daughter Jill, the bereavement support was provided by this organization. The parents were supported by this organization in their initial stage (Newsom, et.al., 2017) (AC.2.3.)
• Jewish Bereavement Counselling Service (JBCS): It is an organization which provides confidential counseling services to the people suffering from bereavement. Such counseling is provided on a one-to-one basis by experienced and trained volunteer counselors. However, the downside of this organization is that it provides services only to the Jewish. The given case scenario does not state that Sue and Tom were Jewish and therefore it is assumed that they are not Jewish. As an outcome, they cannot avail services of JBCS organization as its services are limited to Jewish people.
• Bowel Cancer Support: This organisation is a cancer support charity organization which provides support to people affected by Bowel Cancer. Their main aim is to improve the quality of life and provide support to people affected by Bowel Cancer. For ensuring a future where nobody dies of cancer, they run workshops and training for healthcare professionals and organise campaigns for early detection of cancer. They also provide access to the persons affected by cancer with the best quality treatment and care. The support services provided by bowel cancer support helps in educating the community and spreading the awareness about cancer and proper treatments. However, these support services fail where the patient itself is not willing to avail the services or resist any treatment (Anderson, et.al., 2015).In the given case scenario, the death of Jill was due to leukemia and the organization provides support services to bowel cancer patients. Therefore, this organization is not suitable in the given case scenario.
• The Lullaby Trust: This trust is committed to raising awareness on matters such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).The services provided by the trust includes providing expert advice in relation to the safer sleep for babies and to provide emotional support to their families suffering from bereavement. The awareness created by this organization provides better support to the parents in taking care of their infants such as it promotes and recommends co-sleeping for at least six months of age.However, the support provided by this organization is limited to the families of infants (Binger, 2015). In a given case, this organization is not suitable as the daughter lost by Sue and Tom was 10 years old and therefore they are not eligible to gain support services from this organization.

From the evaluation of the suitability of above-mentioned organizations, it can be concluded that Bereaved Partners Support Group can help Tom and Sue as they have lost their daughter Jill to cancer. They are eligible to avail the services of this charity group. In the initial stage of bereavement, Sue availed the services of this charity group to pull herself together and move back to a normal life.

In the given case, Sue and Tom took assistance from external organizations but Sue continued to show sign of grief even after the passage of sufficient time period to recover from grief. She felt guilty and as a result, she was overprotective for her son. She was advised to consult a professionalcounselor to help her recover from her grief and move on with her life. She was provided with support by the Bereaved Partners who provide support to people by identifying and sharing experiences and views with people suffering from similar conditions.

When Sue was not able to recover from her bereavement even after the support was provided byShaping the Bereavement and partner Support Group, she was recommended by her husband to take support from professional counselling.The professional counsellor used the cognitive grieving therapy to help Sue in searching for a rational meaning to life. Sue was able to affirm on the normality of her grief and loss behaviour. This professional Counselling helped her in developing the skills to cope up in final stages of her grieving process.

The health practitioners face loss and grief regularly due to their own life experiences and the experiences and other experiences with ill-health and death of patients or through exposure to loss and grief experienced by patients and their families. The healthcare professionals are highly capable and particular in ensuring the care of their patients and their families but there are times when they overlook taking care of themselves during their bereavement times. The bereavement feeling of health care professionals is often not acknowledged and therefore the organizations employing healthcare professionals are required to implement certain policies and procedures with the aim if fulfilling the needs of such professionals in times of bereavement (Kinderman, et.al., 2013). Such employees must be provided with comfort and sympathy from co-workers and managers.

The organizations must consider focussing on the need of employees by communicating effectively and sympathizing with them, showing them respect and helping them in making informed decisions. The need for employees in the context of confidentiality, data protection, regular assessments must be identified and acknowledged. The organization must identify the employees that are most vulnerable to the grief and loss (Kleiman, et.al., 2014). Such identification can be based on past records such as the previous diagnosis of employees with depression or records of suicidal attempts. The employees who are less skilled in managing situations of grief and loss must also be identified and provided with special support.

The abilities of employees of working effectively and efficiently may also be impacted as a result of facing any significant life events or bereavement. In such situations, the management and HR manager of the organization must identify and ensure that such identified employees are provided with programs and procedures from which they can benefit in situations of bereavement (Lin, et.al., 2013). The employers must provide the support to such identified employees through trained, qualified and experienced staff members. Such support from employers and managers can also result in an increase in commitment of employees for the employer.

The organization can help the identified employees through a critical response team. Such team is led by managers and HR professional and provide additional support, undertake to critique session, debriefing, and diffusing sessions and follow-up to employees in times of bereavement (Wang, et.al., 2014).

The employees are provided support within six to eight hours of the incident under the defusing session. A non-judgemental meeting of persons affected by grief or loss is carried and such meeting is confidential. The highly trained professionals and counselors are critical for this meeting as they can help the participants of the meeting by letting them know the emotional, physical and mental reactions that they may face and providing them with ways in which such situations can be dealt with. Another suggested response of the team can be debriefing session. In this session, a semi-structural one-time conversation can be arranged with an individual who has faced any such similar incident in recent past (Wagner, et.al., 2014). This process is aimed at protecting the individual from any psychological harm as in session, they are allowed to share their feelings and experience with others. This session must be provided within 24-72 hours of an incident for best outcomes. These sessions are followed by a follow-up session under which the team members check-in to ensure that the affected individuals are handling fine.

Under critiquing session, all the aspects of the incident are evaluated by managers or supervisors and curative solutions are offered based upon the identified deficiencies. This session is held weeks after the incident. The evaluation process under this session includes how the incident must be handled and prevented and what measures can be taken to make it more effective. It aids in reviewing the existing policies and procedures (Granek, et.al., 2012).

In the case of Sue, her organization could have provided support by identifying her needs and providing her with options like flexible working, financial support, paid leave and such others. The critical response team of her organization could have provided her with debriefing or defusing sessions followed by follow up sessions to find out her state of mind and provide her with some assistance in coping with her loss. (AC.3.1.)

A lost my grandmother before five years due to last stage cancer. She died within a month of her diagnosis of cancer. This death incident tore my family apart. My parents were hugely impacted by her death as they were too close to her, but I wasn’t very close to her. All the savings of my parents were spent on her treatment and yet they couldn’t save her. Her death was a shock for my parents.

Eventually, my mother was able to manage herself and pull back her life, but my father couldn’t pull himself out of the grief and loss of the death of his mother. He feels guilty for not spending much time with her mother and canceling upon her every now and then. In this situation, we faced a financial crisis as my earnings were not sufficient for managing the expenses in the family. However, I provided financial support to my family to every possible extent by managing their monthly bills, expenditures of groceries and other household expenses. During this time, my father also felt sick due to extreme financial and emotional stress. I provided him with physical support by taking him to doctor visits and helped my mother by helping her in grocery shopping. I would drive her to her workeveryday and kept track of their medications. When my grandmother died, my father needed help with the crematory services as he alone was not capable of managing the crematory and funeral. I helped him with these spiritual works. Further, I invited friends of my parents at our place time to time so that they could share their grief and use social support to recover.

When reflecting on the process of supporting, I feel that my organization could have helped me by letting me work in flexible hours. I did not have any experience in dealing with situations of bereavement and in this situation, it was difficult for me to provide support to my parents and manage my work at the same time. There were times when I felt that it was not possible for me to provide any additional support to my parents as I was left with no time for myself or my social life but then I realized that I could not give up on my responsibilities. From this experience, I learned that the feeling of grief and loss can turn the life of an individual upside down. It is not necessary that the individuals facing bereavement recover from after any certain time or express themselves in any certain way. (AC.3.2.)

For the purpose of improving the health care services provided to a person impacted by significant life events, the organizations are required to follow the patient-centered approach. The organizations must deliver the quality services focussing on the needs of patients. The leaders must undertake the responsibility of frontline staff and support them in providing services of quality and care to the patients. The patients suffering from the long-term conditions must be provided with support near to their houses. They can be supported through earlier detection of disease and providing the treatment to minimize its effects (Kleiman, et.al., 2014).The patients affected by long-term diseases must be provided with financial assistance, promoting independence, allowing the patients to take control of their lives and extending their quality of life.

The organizations providing bereavement support services must be proactive and must establish contacts with the people at risk to provide them effective support. The organizations must adopt a holistic approach for the identification of need of employees and other individuals suffering from bereavement and determine the most suitable programs for providing them with psychological, financial and physical support. They must also review their policies and procedures for providing care services on a regular basis (Koenig, 2013).

The organizations providing care services to children must ensure that their services include care planning and assessment of provided services and the situation of the child particularly in cases of neglect and abuse. They must also enter into an agreement with the parents of the child including clear timeframes and consequences of non-compliance. (AC.3.3.)

Conclusion

Significant life events turn the life of an individual upside down. When a person is suffering from bereavement, he can be aided by the support provided by his immediate social group, family members, support agencies, workplace organization, and healthcare professionals. The support must be provided considering all the factors that are influencing the physical and mental health of the individual. There are certain situations when even the employees face bereavement as a result of experiencing any loss of their patient. In such situations, the healthcare organizations must provide them with support to bear the bereavement circumstances.

References

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