a volunteer hospice organization established 1977
a volunteer hospice organization established 1977
Our Center's Namesake
Dorothy D. Rupe
Our Mission
Hospice of San Luis Obispo County, committed to the dignity of the human experience, provides volunteer support, education, and counseling to those living with life threatening or terminal illness, their families, and the bereaved.
Locations
Hospice San Luis Obispo
1304 Pacific Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: 805.544.2266
Street Map
Hospice Paso Robles
1345 Oak Street
Paso Robles, CA 93446
Phone: 805.434.1164
Street Map
Hours
San Luis Obispo
Monday - Friday
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Paso Robles
by Appointment
Hospice Links:
Community Links:
|
SUDDEN AND UNANTICIPATED LOSS
Excerpt from Therese A. Rando
Complications:
-
The capacity to cope is diminished as the shock effects of the death tend to overwhelm the individual.
-
One’s “assumptive” world is violently shattered without warning. That is, our beliefs in the world as orderly, predictable, and meaningful and ourselves as invulnerable are fragmented. This often results in intense reactions of fear, anxiety, vulnerability and loss of control.
-
The loss does not make sense, and often cannot be understood or absorbed, therefore making it difficult to process.
-
There is no chance to say good-bye and finish unfinished business with the deceased, which creates problems due to the lack of closure.
-
Symptoms of acute grief and of physical and emotional shock persist for a longer period of time than with other types of grief.
-
The mourner obsessively reconstructs events in an effort both to comprehend the death and to prepare for it in retrospect.
-
The mourner experiences a profound loss of security and confidence in the world which affect all areas of life and increases anxiety.
-
The loss cuts across experiences in the relationship and tends to highlight what was happening at the time of the death. This may cause last-minute situations to be out of proportion with the rest of the relationship and set up problems with realistic recollections and guilt.
-
The death tends to leave mourners with relatively more intense emotional reactions. Greater anger, ambivalence, guilt, helplessness, death anxiety, vulnerability, confusion, disorganization, and obsessions with the deceased are common.
-
There is a strong need to make meaning of the death and to determine blame and affix responsibility for it.
-
The death tends to be followed by a number of major secondary losses because of the consequences of lack of anticipation (i.e., loss of home because of lack of financial planning).
-
The death can provoke post-traumatic stress responses (i.e., repeated intrusion of traumatic memories, numbing of feelings, anxiety).
-
If circumstances are such that there has been no body viewing to confirm the death, the mourner is at additional risk for complications.
-
If there are legal inquiries and/or processes, these can complicate the mourning by forcing the need to intentionally repress feelings (in order to be able to testify) and/or possibly presenting the mourner with circumstances causing secondary victimization (media coverage).
Effects of Traumatic Death: The stress response syndrome
1. An initial outcry in response to a stressful event.
2. A phase of denial and numbing often occurs in reaction to the initial realization that a traumatic event has taken place.
3. Individuals often experience intrusive repetitions of traumatic memory, thought, feeling, or behavior alternating with denial and numbing.
4. This alternation of phases allows mourners to modulate emotional reactions to the event by containing them within tolerable, paced doses.
5. This continues until the traumatic event is worked through by being integrated cognitively and emotionally and the individual develops appropriate adaptive responses.
If you need help coping with a loss, caring for a seriously ill loved one, or dealing with your own mortality, please call us at 805.544.2266 or 805.434.1164. We're here to help.