Download Written Assignment: Older Adulthood

Running head: PSYCH 237: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
Written Assignment: Older Adulthood - Death and Dying
Christy Cheryl Hamilton; [email protected]
Psych 237
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PSYCH 237: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
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Death and dying is an interesting topic because we are all going to die one day,
eventually. Anyone can die at any moment from fatal accidents. Fatal accidents are the normal
cause of death for younger individuals, being that younger people do not normally die from a
natural cause. Looking at the deaths of older adults, the cause is usually an illness that the older
person has been fighting that finally ends their life. It is not that older adults do not die in fatal
accidents like younger adults do, it is just not the more common cause of death in the majority of
older adults. A lot of times you will hear younger children ask an adult why someone had died
and they get the simple response in return that the person died “from old age”; this is a phrase
that can be considered true if you view it from the understanding that when you get older, your
health can decline in a variable of ways that eventually will be the end of you. Whether it was the
food you ate, an inherited disposition to some type of poor health, a disease of unknown origin,
or you were overall healthy but you have lived enough years to where your heart has just finally
used up its allotted time to work at its needed capacity, you can expect death to come, eventually.
Death and dying is a very real part of life that is to be expected and it is processed by all
individuals differently and according to their connection to the subject.
It has been stated that older adults do not fear death or that they do not have the same
amount of anxiety from the thought of it compared to middle-aged adults (Erber, p.368). There
are different theories as to why people feel this difference in feelings concerning impending
death according to their age group. It makes sense that people in the “sandwich generation”
would feel this way. The term sandwich generation is one that is used for adults who are not only
caring for their own children but they are also caring for the older adults in their lives, such as
their own parents or maybe a grandparent that needs assistance. The sandwich generation
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generally applies to the middle-aged group of adults. With this responsibility upon this group of
people, it would make sense as to why they would have more anxiety provoked from the thought
of dying. It may also be easier for older adults to accept the thought of death because they have
had more time to deal with that thought, maybe through dealing with the loss of others in their
age group that they knew, and it is ingrained by that time that they will inevitably die as well, as
everyone does.
There are five stages of the dying process that are commonly referred to. These stages
were noted by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, she put the stages together by assessing the
input of patients who were dying in the 1960s (Erber, p.369). These stages do not necessarily
apply to everyone, some people will be ready to die and more willing to accept their diagnosis. It
should also be noted that theses stages of death and dying do not only apply to the patient who is
actually the one dying, but also to those who are close to the dying person can also experience
the same feelings that accompany each stage of the five stages set by Kübler-Ross. There are
three other terms that can be used to describe the process of handling a death: bereavement, grief,
and mourning (Erber, p.374). Bereavement is the process of adjusting to the death and how it
will continue to effect the person’s life who is affected, grief is the actual emotional response that
the person may have, and mourning consists of the cultural routines that follow a death (Erber,
p.374). People that possibly could be affected by a person’s death can be numerous in amount, so
it can be a complete process for many people resulting from the death of one person. Not only
are spouses and children affected, but also the immediate family and close friends can be deeply
affected by a person’s death.
In today’s age, there is constantly being a turnout of new technology, especially in the
medical field. With modern technology, people’s lives are being prolonged and improved beyond
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what could naturally occur in their life without the help of these treatments and the technical
advances that may be offered to them. It is great for those who are mentally capable of thinking
and feeling but there is an issue with life sustaining treatments that goes beyond them being
temporary or as to it being the obvious choice for a person to receive the treatments. There are
dilemmas where the people receiving these types of treatment are not mentally functioning, they
are actually termed braindead but they are not considered dead from onlookers because they are
nourished by feeding tubes and breathing from ventilators. So when you question the quality of
life, those who are braindead can be very hard for some people to decide on what decisions need
to be made concerning their care because of the lack of the quality of life that the patient has.
Though people may look alive and physically okay, this is what makes it the more difficult to
decide on what should be done with these type of patients and the continuation of their use of life
sustaining treatments or whether they should be removed from the treatment options and left to
die naturally. To quote the book, “it is often not clear whether or not a person has entered the
dying process.”(Erber, p.363). This quote was made referring to the advances in life sustaining
treatments that have made it uncertain as to whether or not the person will actually die from
something they would die from had they not received a medical treatment to improve their
condition. This makes it difficult to decide if they are even still considered to be in their dying
phase now that the outcome of death is no longer certain or even a suspected outcome following
their possible positive effects from their received treatment.
On the other spectrum of life, compared to prolonging it, there is the option of early
termination. Euthanasia of humans is a very touchy subject, many people have varying opinions
about the subject and certain forms are legal in some states and some are illegal in others, and
there are stipulations on what is actually legal concerning the process that must be performed.
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Passive euthanasia seems to be the most acceptable form, because many people can choose to
become a DNR patient, a “do not resuscitate” patient. This is another form of an advance
directive which states that CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, will not be performed on the
patient if the situation for its need were to arise. It is active euthanasia which causes so much
confusion and differences of opinion. In the states that do allow active euthanasia, they only
allow for the person who is being euthanized to administer their own medications to facilitate the
process; the problem with this is that there are people who are mentally cognizant but cannot
move their limbs, there is no way that these people suffering from these types of illnesses could
administer their own euthanizing medications. While some people feel that euthanasia is the right
thing to do because there are people who are suffering a slow death, there are other people who
view this type of euthanasia as murder, which they feel is wrong and should remain illegal.
A lot of people who know they will be dying soon think a lot about how they want to die
on the terms that they can control, like where they will spend their last moments. For some
people, dying at home is not possible. So these people will either die at a regular hospital or
hospice, which is a specialty type of care facility. When patients are admitted to the hospital but
they would be better suited for hospice, you will hear about the dying patient being on comfort
measures before they get transferred to hospice, if they do get transferred in time. Comfort
measures are the closest thing that a hospital can provide someone who is dying compared to
what hospice is specialized to provide each individual patient. The point of this type of care is to
make the dying person as comfortable as possible before their time comes. In normal hospital
settings, you are trying to treat everything wrong with a patient, which can be invasive and
uncomfortable. In the hospice setting or on comfort measures, instead of treating the patient for
anything that could be wrong with them, such as by providing medications that may be painful to
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inject or swallow and limiting diets that may be bland and unappealing, they are instead
receiving what they want to be the most comfortable, they may receive specific foods that may
make them happy and intravenous pain medications as well as their only medication to help them
to not feel any pain. Hospice also does not have to be within a specific facility, some hospice
care is now outpatient care, meaning that the patient can receive their care at home, which may
be more comforting to them. Hospice not only provides physical care, but also emotional
support. Hospice aims to help people cope with the impending death that they may be expecting
and it also helps those close to the dying person to cope with their feelings about losing their
loved one.
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References
Erber, Joan T. (2013). Aging & older adulthood - third edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.