Review of Bereavement in Adult Life – Full article
The article, Bereavement In Adult Life, written by consultant psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes
Is positioned from the doctors perspective with regard to bereavement and how best it can be handled by doctors on all levels starting from the General Practitioner as they are best placed to guide a patient through this transition.
I decided to use this article because it provides statistics that back up a theory that I have not yet had time to research. Clegg (1988) found that 31% of 71 patients admitted to a psychiatric unit for the elderly had recently been bereaved. I suspect the number is really high when the boundaries of research are widened.
Murray-Parkes points to the startling truth that despite the most impressive scientific advancements designed to prolong life, the health service still loses 100% of it’s clients and whilst that statistic is unavoidable I think that the article points out many effective ways in which the process of the resulting grief can be handled for those who are left behind. Loss is a common cause of illness and yet this basic fact is often overlooked. In the Western world grief has become an ailment to be medicated against; this is a dangerous development because it is often the case that those who experience loss would actually benefit far more from talking therapies, such as bereavement counselling or hypnotherapy even.
There are so many levels of understanding needed by the GP and although he is best placed, he is often strapped for time which also allows for the high number of unrecognised grief related symptoms that risk being medicated against when conversation and a listening ear would do so much more.
Murray-Parkes speaks of the role of the GP with regard to visits to the bereaved as soon as the next day following the event of their loss. I find this notion to be wholly idealistic as most GP’s simply lack the time to be able to visit their patients (especially during this moment of worldwide pandemic). Not that long ago the doctor was at the centre of the community providing bedside care. Now though, often overstretched and understaffed GP’s are unable to establish a relationship with their patients and this indeed hampers their ability to understand how much information is retained by the patient and how this information is assimilated alongside cultural or religious beliefs.
Interestingly Murray-Parkes states that “Most adults do not wander the streets crying aloud for a dead person. Bereaved people often try to avoid reminders of their loss and to suppress the expression of grief. What emerges is a compromise, a partial expression of feelings”. This statement not does recognise culture, diversity nor individual agency. For example, the African or Caribbean persons suppressing their grief in order to find acceptance by the dominant race can find themselves experiencing forms of exacerbated grief down the line, such expressions of grief can be misdiagnosed with medication in order to further suppress behaviours that do not fit in with the cultural norms of the dominant race.
Due to time constraints I am unable to fully explore this article within this space, however I will endeavour to find time. In conclusion Murray-Parkes makes a beautiful point when explaining that there is evidence that losses can foster maturity and personal growth. Losses are not necessarily harmful, most bereaved people come through the experience stronger and wiser than they went into it. It is rewarding for me, to see them through that process.