Research Project 1 Experiencing Others’ Deaths

 

Commentators have observed that Americans have remarkably little direct experience of death compared to other people of other nations. Most Americans die in hospitals. But is this true? This project will give you information about the nature and extent or your own and your peers experience of death.

Have at least five of your peers answer the questions below. You may have them respond in writing or speak their answers in an interview (if the latter, be sure you are prepared to record their answers). In either case, be sure to allow up to an hour for each person to respond. Of course, you will need institutional approval and your respondents’ informed consent to carry out your project.

Summarize your findings by constructing an appropriate table or tables showing how people responded to the questions you asked. Then write a brief report in which you at least indicate the purpose of your project, describe the people who participated, summarize your results, and draw appropriate conclusions about your peers' experience of death. Try also to indicate whether what you learn illustrates points made in your textbook.

 

Questions about Experiencing Others' Deaths

 

1.             Has anyone you have known died? How many people?

(Note: You will want to ask the following questions about each person your respond eat has known.)

2. Who was the person in relation to you (e.g., brother? Aunt? Friend?)?

3. How and where did the person die?

4. Were you present at the time of death? What was your reaction?

5. If you were not present at the time of death, how did you react when you learned of the death?

6. Did you view the body of the dead person at some time after death (e.g., at a funeral home?) What was your reaction to seeing the body?

7. How involved were you in taking care of practical matters concerning the deceased?

8. How involved were you in mourning the deceased?

How involved were you in caring for other people who were mourning the deceased?

10. For how long did the individual's death have a daily impact on you (e.g., thinking about the person every day)?

11.  Have you worked through any concerns the persons death created for you?

12.  Has it been difficult for you to answer these questions?

 

Research Project 2 Hospices in Your Community

 

Santrock indicates that most people die in hospitals, but that increasingly people are turning to hospices as a context in which to die. Is this happening in your community? Find out by determining whether there are hospices in your community. These may be located within hospitals or adjacent to them; or they may be found in nursing homes or nursing care centers.

Once you have found one or more hospices, learn as much as you can about it. What is the nature of the group that runs it? How does the hospice serve the needs of the dying person and the person's family? Does the hospice do anything to teach about the meaning of death to the person who is dying and people close to that person? What services does the hospice provide for the survivors?

Another line of inquiry concerns social policy that affects the hospice. For example, hospitals cannot be reimbursed for providing long-term care for dying patients. Thus, important questions to ask concern the impact of medicare, medicaid, and private insurance payments. How does this relate to who can afford hospice care? Who does use the service? What type of hospice care would local groups provide if governmental police and financial constraints did not limit them?

Summarize your findings in a brief paper in which you answer at least the questions listed above. Also, comment on how well what you learned coincides with what your text reports about attitudes toward death in the United States. If you can, determine how well the hospice or hospices you locate implement what we know about how well people cope with their own or other individual's deaths,

 

 

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