When a person is dying, they go through a series of losses that each produce their own unique grief reaction. Gain a better understanding of the stages of death and dying with tips from a hospice community development director in this free video on dealing with death.
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Video transcription
The best way to understand the stages of death and dying, is to understand that there are no stages of death and dying. I'm Sandi Sunter with the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. I would love to be able to stand here and say that there is a prescription in how people die, however each of us is a unique individual who comes to the end of life with a unique story. We all come from different backgrounds religious backgrounds cultural backgrounds, families that have taught us different ways of dealing with the good times and the bad times. And we bring all of that to our end of life story. We do know however that there are some things that we all experience or at some point at end of life might experience. Anxieties, fears, we know that dying people fear being alone, fear of losing control and that seems to be something that is shared among dying people. There are certain emotions that we see among dying people at one time or another, some may experience it more than others, feeling angry, feeling depressed, feeling guilty, and yet finding opportunities for growth and opportunities for experiencing something new that they maybe have not experienced at all. If you think of dying as an opportunity or a time when there are a series of losses, when you think that dying people may experience loss of body image, loss of self control, loss of diversional activities, loss of companionship. With each of those losses comes a grief reaction, and a grief reaction may include, feeling angry, feeling shocked at times, feeling profoundly sad a depressed, yet at some point feeling a sense of reconciliation and peace. So with every loss comes a grief response and there's a cycle over and over which can help explain why dying people may have these emotional roller coasters. And that may help us understand that when we are with people at the end of life, what our job is is to be present. Not just physically present with them, but emotionally present with them. Our job is to be there as companions, it is their journey it is not our experience, it is their unique experience to be there to be caring, compassionate and understanding.
