{"title":"Older Adults' Perspectives on Voluntary Assisted Death: An In-Depth Qualitative Investigation in Australia.","authors":"Eyal Gringart, Claire Adams, Faye Woodward","doi":"10.1177/00302228221090066","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221090066","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Interest in voluntary assisted death (VAD) has been growing among researchers, policy makers and the public. This study aimed to explore older adults' perspectives on VAD in Australia. Using purposive sampling, 15 adults ≥65 years participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified four themes: cultural reflections; beliefs and worldviews; health aspects; and fabric of life. Participants expressed a desire to have control over end-of-life options, challenged by religious beliefs. Participants expressed concern that VAD legislation could leave people vulnerable to coercion and saw a need for safeguards. Reasons for and against supporting and utilising VAD were discussed. Physical illness was seen a more compelling reason for VAD than mental ill-health. Finally, connections to life and other were discussed, and being able to do the things one loved were named aspects of what it meant to live a good life. Implications are discussed along with future research directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43628923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lucas A Keefer, Faith L Brown, Zachary K Rothschild, Kaitlyn Allen
{"title":"A Distant Ally?: Mortality Salience and Parasocial Attachment.","authors":"Lucas A Keefer, Faith L Brown, Zachary K Rothschild, Kaitlyn Allen","doi":"10.1177/00302228221085173","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221085173","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research in Terror Management Theory finds that close interpersonal relationships (e.g., parents, romantic partners) mitigate threat reactions to reminders of mortality. Parasocial relationships (imagined relationships with media personalities) afford many of the same benefits as interpersonal relationships. Do these benefits extend to mortality concerns? We investigated whether those with strong parasocial attachments were differentially influenced by reminders of death. Results showed that those with strong parasocial relationships had more defensive reactions to a mortality prime, suggesting that such attachments may not afford the same existential benefits given by close human others and may instead indicate a heightened vulnerability.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44206969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Second-Line Parades: A Trauma-Informed Response to Grief.","authors":"Lauren D Hunter","doi":"10.1177/00302228221085471","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221085471","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>New Orleans is no stranger to trauma. The Crescent City has a vast history of environmental calamities and oppression. Yet, New Orleans is renowned for its \"joie de vivre\"-or \"love of life.\" Specifically, this community is known for its unique practice of second-line parades. Researchers have noted the healing power of second-line processions, but none have analyzed the practice and psychology of this ritual through a trauma-informed lens. The aim of this conceptual paper is to begin the conversation, rather than deliver hard fast conclusions, on the potential therapeutic function of second-line parades in response to grief. Relevant literature is presented to illustrate second-line parades, trauma theory, and to provide evidence that the therapeutic effects of second-lining may, in part, be explained by trauma theory. This paper concludes with remarks on conceptualizing the second-line funeral as a sophisticated trauma-informed approach to grief and a note for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49160909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"We Will All Go, But What We All Seek Is Good Death\": Cultural Notions of Good Death And Related Mortuary Rituals Among the Akan of Ghana.","authors":"Mensah Adinkrah","doi":"10.1177/00302228221082417","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221082417","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thanatologists who have researched mortuary beliefs and practices from around the world posit that many societies differentiate between good and bad deaths. The current study utilized in-depth interviews with 30 Akan culture experts to investigate what the Akan ethnic group of Ghana considers to be good death. The results show that Akan good death is natural harmonious death that occurs at advanced age. The deceased would also have experienced a meaningful life devoid of immorality or turpitude. While the bodies of decedents of Akan bad deaths are interred without much ceremony, good deaths are associated with elaborate burial rites and funerary obsequies that serve to honor the decedent. Findings show that Akans generally aspire to achieve a good death, be granted solemn burial rites, and to receive a fitting funerary celebration that would launch them on a journey to join ancestral kin in the hereafter.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49426992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Funeral Industry Workers' Work Health and Safety in Australia and Ireland.","authors":"Natalie Roche, Susan Darzins, Rwth Stuckey","doi":"10.1177/00302228221075289","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221075289","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Funeral workers (FWs) work within increasingly medicalized and commodified death-management systems. This study explored Worker Health and Safety (WHS) impacts in contemporary death management on Australian and Irish FWs. Mixed methods combined a survey and interviews. Survey data were descriptively summarized, interviews thematically analyzed, and a schematic systems model developed of the combined results. Survey participants (<i>n</i> = 45) reported psychosocial hazards from work pressures, competition, and fatigue. Psychosocial hazards were more frequently reported than physical hazards by Australian FWs. Physical hazards were of greater concern to Irish FWs. Themes from 11 interviews were: <i>Personal Attributes, Work Demands</i>, and <i>Socio-Cultural Context.</i> All FWs reported conflicts between individual capacities, work demands, and resources, resulting in hazardous personal states including difficulty sleeping and stress. Respectfully manually handling human remains and \"event management\" demands for increasingly elaborate funerals created negative WHS impacts. This research informs risk management for FWs and other workers in the increasingly complex death-care industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48231243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To Lose a Loved One by Medical Assistance in Dying or by Natural Death with Palliative Care: A Mixed Methods Comparison of Grief Experiences.","authors":"Philippe Laperle, Marie Achille, Deborah Ummel","doi":"10.1177/00302228221085191","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221085191","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of assisted dying into end-of-life care is raising reflections on bereavement. Patients and families may be faced with a choice between this option and natural death assisted by palliative care; a choice that may affect grief. Therefore, this study describes and compares grief experiences of individuals who have lost a loved one by medical assistance in dying or natural death with palliative care. A mixed design was used. Sixty bereaved individuals completed two grief questionnaires. The qualitative component consisted of 16 individual semi-structured interviews. We found no statistically significant differences between medically assisted and natural deaths, and scores did not suggest grief complications. Qualitative results are nuanced: positive and negative imprints may influence grief in both contexts. Hastened and natural deaths are death circumstances that seem to generally help ease mourning. However, they can still, in interaction with other risk factors, produce difficult experiences for some family caregivers.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11317015/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44898586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pam Oliver, Michael Wilson, Cameron McLaren, Rob Jonquiere
{"title":"Providing Legal Assisted Dying and Euthanasia Services in a Global Pandemic: Lessons for Ensuring Service Continuity.","authors":"Pam Oliver, Michael Wilson, Cameron McLaren, Rob Jonquiere","doi":"10.1177/00302228221089120","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221089120","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background & objectives:</b> Identifying the impacts of COVID-19 on patients' and practitioners' access to legal assisted dying and euthanasia (AD&E) services is vital to informing service continuity in an ongoing pandemic.<b>Methods:</b> An anonymous online survey collected qualitative and quantitative data from health practitioners and agencies providing legal AD&E services (<i>n</i> = 89), complemented by semi-structured interviews with 18 survey respondents who volunteered.<b>Results:</b> Following governments' responses to the dynamic pandemic context, rates of AD&E inquiries and requests fluctuated across and within jurisdictions, based on a complex interaction of factors affecting patient access to AD&E agencies and assessors as services were disrupted. Service flexibility and nimbleness became key elements in continuing service availability and included calculated 'rule-breaking' considered justifiable to adhere to established bioethics. Making innovative adjustments to usual practice led to reviewing the effectiveness of AD&E services and laws, resulting in providers now improving services and lobbying for legislative change.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43734298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karina S Kamp, Andrew Moskowitz, Helena Due, Helle Spindler
{"title":"Are Sensory Experiences of One's Deceased Spouse Associated with Bereavement-Related Distress?","authors":"Karina S Kamp, Andrew Moskowitz, Helena Due, Helle Spindler","doi":"10.1177/00302228221078686","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221078686","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Following late-life spousal bereavement, sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased (SED) are commonly reported. This longitudinal study examined SED among 310 older widowed adults 6-10 (T1) and 18-20 (T2) months post loss. Reports of SED in the first 6-10 months after loss were associated with higher symptom levels of prolonged grief, post-traumatic stress, and loneliness at T1. Experiencers of SED were more likely to experience symptoms of prolonged grief and post-traumatic stress above cut-off scores at T1. Importantly, only a minority of the experiencers of SED displayed these elevated levels of bereavement-related distress. In addition, employing multi-level-modeling, a similar trajectory of decreasing bereavement-related distress over time was found for both experiencers and non-experiencers of SED. We argue that SED may be one of several potential reactions to bereavement, which should not be seen as an indicator of grief complications per se.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46372362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"<i>Camp Draws You Back Into Life Again</i>: Exploring the Impact of a Therapeutic Recreation-Based Bereavement Camp for Families Who Have Lost a Child to Serious Illness.","authors":"Peter Hanlon, Gemma Kiernan, Suzanne Guerin","doi":"10.1177/00302228221075282","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221075282","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This qualitative study explores the perceptions of impact associated with engaging in a therapeutic recreation-based bereavement camp for families whose child has died from serious illness. Interviews were completed with 12 parents who had participated in a three-camp cycle of the program over 12-month period, including a subgroup who had also attended a reunion camp. Interviews were also conducted with program staff. Thematic analysis generated key themes relating to the perceived impact which suggest that those engaged in this program perceived positive contributions associated with participation, including perceptions of positive impact on coping with bereavement, access to support and implications for family functioning. This study highlights the areas of impact associated with engagement in a therapeutic recreation-based bereavement intervention, and the potential contribution of wider access to these programs for families whose child has died from serious illness.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11317014/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46950953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Death Positivity in America: The Movement-Its History and Literature.","authors":"Aubrey DeVeny Incorvaia","doi":"10.1177/00302228221085176","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00302228221085176","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Western society is in an era of death awareness, its most recent salience: A Positive Death Movement. This article traces the evolution of American death culture by describing key periods of change, starting with the 1700s and going through the 21st century, and overviews contemporary movement scholarship. Experts suggest our current epoch is one in which a diffuse collection of individuals and organizations advocate for approaching death differently. Movement proponents aim to modify society's \"conventional\" death framework, which is characterized as medicalized, institutionalized, impersonal, and lacking psychosocial emotional preparation and engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":47794,"journal":{"name":"Omega-Journal of Death and Dying","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43951946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}