Significant life event are inevitable in our life. In health and social care, the health and social care professionals has a role to play when people under their care are affected by significant life events. According to Williams (1999), significant life event signifies important change in one’s life and if the transition is not well managed and supported, there might be reverse of health and wellbeing gained achieved. In this report I evaluate how people experiencing significant life event in health and social care are supported. Although significant life events are many, some positive while other negative, this report will be biased toward bereavement. The reports are based on case scenario in which a young man named George lost his mother to cancer evaluate how George support need were met or not met in the hospital where his mother was being taken care of.  

1.1 explain the impact of life event on individual life

Significant life event is defined as an occurrence which can be negative or positive that affects once life permanently (Williams (1999). It is life changing occurrences or event which is irreversible or has long term impacts on once life. Example of significant life changes includes divorce, marriage, ending of relationship, death, pregnancy, rape, career changes (e.g. promotion, demotion, or retirement), and diagnosis of medical condition among others. Bereavement is one of the major significant life events that affect all of us in our human life. As mentioned by DH (2012), Bereavements may include loss of family member, friends or even pets.  According to National Council for Palliative Care (2014), bereaved person respond to the loss in different which include social response, physical response emotional response and even spiritual response. The social change experienced by bereaved person includes feeling of emptiness, withdrawing socially, and feeling detached, losing interest in usual activities and hobbies, feeling irritable, suspicious and becoming hostile(National Council for Palliative Care 2014). According to Breen & Connor (2011), Social changes experienced by bereaved person are as a result of the person feeling that no one understand what he/she is going through. One may loss or gain friend during this period. Physical response of bereaved person includes changes in body energy (such as being exhausted, muscle tightness, body weakness, body pain, and lack of energy), sleeping problem (such as sleeping too much, lack of sleep and disturbing dream), digestive upset (such as loss of appetite, overeating, diarrhea etc), and head ache, short of breath among others (National Council for Palliative Care 2014). Emotional response includes numbness, sadness, reliefs, anger, difficulty in making decision, guilty and anxiety. As mentioned by National Council for Palliative Care (2014), bereaved person may experiences moment of numbness, disbelief and denial. This is a defenses mechanism at the initial stage of bereavement after which the person comes to term with the reality. The bereaved person may also feel anxious, fear and a lot of worry. He may also feel relief especially if the death was after a long illness. Bereaved person also find it hard concentrating and focusing. This makes it impossible for him to make rational decision. According to National Council for Palliative Care (2014), bereaved person may also experiences spiritual challenges. Some may start to question their faith or religion while other may feel angry to their God for not be protecting their loved one. Bereaved person may start asking question such as was this God’s plan? Why Does God has to let me go through this? Etc. According to laffrancini (2005), bereaved person goes through Kubler-Ross’s 5 stages of grieving. These stages are; Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

In the denial stage, the affected people deny the reality of the loss and May isolate from friends and family. This may last for few moments. The bereaved person may become angry. This anger may be directed to the person, who let, or to self or to health care staff for not saving the dead person. In the bargaining stage, the bereaved person tries to negotiate with the supernatural to take away the loss. For instance, one may negotiate with GOD to take away the illness and in return he serves the poor. The next stage is depression, this stage occur when the bereaved person come in term with the reality of the loss. The person may feel down, numb and discouraged. The affected person may find it hard figuring out life without the deceased. Thought of suicide may strike his minds. Loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed is also common at this stage. The Acceptances occur after some month or even year. In this stage the person accepts the loss and move on with life. Significant life event as seen in the discussion above, affects one’s health and wellbeing. It is therefore essential that persons going under significant life e.g. bereavement should be supported to go through the process in a healthier way.

1.2 Analyze possible group response to significant life event affecting one of its members.

According to Kaunonen et al (1999) and Goldsmith (2007) Family and friends are the best sources of support when and individual is bereaved. As noted by NHS informs (2015), it is not the words that count much during bereavement but the physical presences of family or friend. Physical presences alone play a very important role in helping the friend feel not isolated and misunderstood. This helps the person to recover more quickly and in a healthier way. As already discussed, bereavement may affects individual physically such as being exhausted; feeling weak etc. this may limits the ability of the individual to do normal activities such as taking care of himself among other. Family prove to be very useful as it not only provide emotional support but also physical support such as helping the person clean the house,  wash dishes, cooks and other normal day –to day activities. This put the pressure off the bereaved person. However, as noted by Goldsmith (2007) family support may sometime be inadequate if the members have not gone through the bereavement experience. When such is the case, support group play important roles in helping the bereaved person cope with the loss in a healthier way. Since membership of support Group composed of people who have gone through the experience of bereavement, the member are at better position to offer the recently bereaved person effective support. As noted by  Mojoyinola (2010), support group offer the bereaved person a lot of benefits which include, emotional, spiritual and physical support in non judgmental environment. For instance, the Group George joined in the hospital during his bereavement not only helps him emotionally but also help him to fulfill his mothers wishes. Other benefits offered by support group include countering the sense of isolation, they provide member with a platform to share their thought and feeling in free environment. This help the member fell understood which help them get relate well with others (Mojoyinola 2010).

1.3 analyzes the impacts for other in health and social care when an individual experience significant life events.

When a significant life event affects a member in health and social care setting, it may also have impact on others. The fast impacts are on the care workers. Care workers are responsible for ensuring residents and patients in their organization are given the necessary support they needs. As already mentioned in earlier discussion, significant life event may have negative effects on one‘s healthy and well being if proper support is not given to them. It is the duties of the care worker to ensure such event does not have adverse effect to the affected person. They are therefore support to offer the support needed or facilitate for such support. The support needed might be demanding, this way result to care worker feeling exhausted. As noted by  Boerner,K et al (2013), staffs who had direct contact with the deceased experiences significant level of grieving. The goes through the grieving process just like the bereaved person (Marcella and Kelley 2015). Other residents/patients may feel obliged to offer support to their colleague. As mentioned by Laura (2003), the culture in health and social care setting affects how others respond to bereaved person.  Patients or residents in health and social care organization may also be emotionally affected by the death of loved one of one of their.

Conclusion

In this section I have learnt that, significant life events whether positive or negatives has some health and well being impacts on the affected person, and people around him especially in health and social care.  Care worker and health professional do therefore have a role to play of providing proper support when an individual under their care experiences significant life event.  

 Task 2

Introduction

In this section I carried out research in journals, books and in internet with the aim of understanding support available to people experiencing significant life event. Findings are presented under three heading i.e L.O 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3

2.1evaluate the effectiveness of organization policies and procedures in supporting individual experiencing significant life event and their social networks

Organization policies and procedures play a very important role in determining the quality of bereavement care offered to individual with such needs. According to BSA and National end of life care program, (2013), Organization policies on bereavement provide a guideline on how bereavement needs are assessed and responded to in an organization. As mentioned by National Palliate Care (2014), there is a clear connection between quality of bereavement care offered in health and social care setting and organization policies. Several guidelines, policy and standards have been developed to guide in the provision bereavement services in UK.  The bereavement care standard (2012) outline the minimum standard of care that organization should have. These include standards relating to bereavement need assessment, respecting diversity in delivering care, observing confidentiality and choice, training of care staffs and volunteers among other.  as mentioned by Bereavement Support Working Group (2010), this standard has help in improving the quality of bereavement care offer to people in needs which result to decreased risk factor associated with bereavement such as suicides mortality increased hospitalization among others. The “Guidance for staff responsible for care after death (last offices)” developed by national consultant group (2010) is another documents that help organization in improving the bereavement care. This guideline outlines principle that should be followed when taking care of the diseases person. Some of the principle includes respecting the deceased wishes and those of their family, preserving the dignity confidentiality among other. It also contains procedures of what care professional should do when the person they were taking care of dies. As mentioned BSA and National end of life care program, (2013) these guidelines are very effective in training health and care professional involved in offering end of life care. If this standard have be clearly followed in the hospital where George mum passed, George bereavement need should have been identified at the earliest point possible and responded to by the staffs. Also as noted by National nursing consultant group (2014), the role of nurse goes beyond the death. They are support to take care of bereaved person on continuously basis until they fully recover. This was not the case with George case.  

2.2 explain how others in the social network may provide support to individual experiencing significant life events.

 Social network are great sources of social support for bereaved person (Goldsmith, 2007). Social support can be defined as the relationship and interpersonal interaction that offers the bereaved person with actual assistances and feeling of attachment that shows significant level of caring (Mojoyinola, 2010).social support is usually provided by friends, working colleagues, nurses care, support worker etc. Social network offer wide range of support to their members. These include informational supports, material support, physical support and emotional support. As mentioned by Goldsmith (2007), social network offer the bereaved personal with the information that offer hope, advices and counseling to the affected person. Informational support offered help the bereaved person understand that what he is experiences in normal and temporarily and change with time. These help the person to successfully cope with the loss quickly. Informational support is provided by wide range category of people including friends, family religious college and leader, professional care giver among others. Member of social network also offer material support. This may include finances, food, and shelter among other. As mentioned by Goldsmith (2007), the stress, anxiety and worries experienced by the bereaved person are partly related to the death and partly related the new responsibility the bereaved person may assume from the deceased. Material supports from social network help take away such worries and anxiety especially they were financially related. Reduction in worry, fear and anxiety help the bereaved person to successfully cope with the loss and start adapt to the new life. Social network also offer emotional support to their members. As noted by NHS inform (2015), the physical presence of a friends or family member during the bereavement period, help in eliminating the feeling of emptiness and social isolation among other benefits. Another way in which emotional support is given to bereaved person is through sensitive communication. Sensitive communications make the affected person feel cared for and loved. This help counter the feeling of loneliness and other social impairment behaviors. Another form of support offered by member of social support is the physical support. They help the bereave person to carry out activities such as  take medication, change position, mobility assistance,  clean bedding and other personal stuffs among other. This form of support is usually provided by family, friends and carer. As mentioned by Mojoyinola (2010), Physical supports help the bereaved person to find comfort and improve his wellbeing Several studies have been conducted to determine the impacts of social networks on the bereaved person. A study was by Minna (2002) was designed to identify the impacts of social support on bereaved person. In this study two controlled group were used. One group had access to social support while the other one did not have access to such support.  The group with access to social support recorded increased health and adjustment outcome after bereavement that that lack such support.  Social support is therefore essential in helping the bereaved person cope faster with loss and in a successful way.

2.3 evaluate the suitability of external source of support to those affected by significant life event

According to National Nursing Consultant Group (2014), bereaved person may find immediate and satisfactory support from family and friends. However, in some circumstances, some people may not cope normally with their loss. They may feel prolonged depression, idea of suicide may strike their mind, they may also experiences, prolonged silences among other characteristic of difficulty in coping with loss. When such is the case, there require specialized care which can only be accessible from outside the care organizations. They should therefore be referred to the suitable care services. According to DH (2012), before referral is made, holistic assessments should be done. A holistic assessment is one that focus on the Whole being of an individual including emotional, physical, spiritual, psychological, environment al and social well being of the  specified individual (Bereavement Support Working Group 2010). The suitability of any care services depends with the prevailing condition. When the affected person is in need of specialized physical support, he may be referred to physiotherapists or occupation therapists to help him or her adapt to the new environment. People with psychological problem or needs arising from bereavement such a suicidal thought and emotional problem such as excessive anger, crying, anxiety and depression should be referred to Psycho- therapist. Those with mental problem should be referred to psychiatric. In this outcome I have learn that a wide range of external source is available to support individual affected by significant life vent. The effectiveness of those support services depend on how well the support needs of the affected person are identified.

 Conclusion

In this section I learn that, support for people experiences significant can be found from family, friends, support group and from specialized care services.  The support provided range from physical support, spiritual, emotional, material and informational support. I Also learnt that support during significant events such as death of love one help the Affected person cope with the loss in a healthier and quicker ways. Lack of support on the other hard may resulted to coping problem which negatively affect the health and well being of the affected individual.  

 Task 3

Introduction

In this section, I present the findings of my research which aimed at helping me understand the response of health and social care in supporting individual going through significant life events

3.1 Analyze possible organizational response to support individual experiencing significant life event.

There are two ways in which organization can respond to the support need for individual experiencing significant life events. These are proactive response and reactive response (critical response). Proactive response refers to the arrangement put forward by the organization before the event occurs. For instances many organization has put in place system policies and procedure of offering support to bereaved person , people going through divorce among other event . In health and social care, this system may accommodate residents as well as staffs. Example of such policies is the leave for bereaved persons. For instances, a resident in care home may be allowed to spend several day with family members in their home but under the watch of care worker. The formation of therapeutic group in health and social care is another example of proactive response. Proactive response is normally provided for those events that are predictable and more likely to happen they however must be responsive to individual care needs (BSA and National End of Life Care Program 2013).For instance it is possible to find system in place to offer support to bereaved person because death is more common than system to offer support to individual going through divorce. In some cases, critical incidence/ unlikely significant events may affects and individual in health and social care. Such incidences may include accidents in the workplace, rape, suicides, homicides, care accidents among other (Help people, 2015). In this case the care organization to develop critical response. It has to make arrangement and develop strategies of offering the affected person the required support in the shortest time possible. In such scenario support needs assessment is done and strategies to meet them devised instantly. Care organization may also refers to the affected person to extern al specialized source of support or may seek external help such as ambulance services among others. In responding to the support needs of the affected persons, whether proactive or reactive response, organization should be guided by thee key principle of care which include proper communication, informed choice, dignity and respect, confidentiality etc (Keegan, 2002). The response designed should involved proper communication that is sensitive to the needs of the affected person (Holmberg 2007). A trained and competent staffs should be involved in the process. Confidentiality of the affected person is very paramount and should always be observed. Only information that has the consent of the affected person should be made public. The response should also be based on evidence based practice. The organization should make an informed choice which mean consulting with relevant stakeholders including the affected person, or their families and external stakeholder such as NICE among others. The person culture, religion and personal attributes should be respected (BSA 2013).

3.2 reflect on own personal contribution to support individual going through significant life events

At one point in life, we experience significant life event or our friend or someone close to us may experience such event. As noted by Stylianos & Vachon (1993), such individual looks up to their social networks for support. Individual contribution to support person experiencing significant life event can never be under rated. As noted by NHS informs (2015), the physical presences of a friend help the bereaved person feel socially cared for. In a few years ago, I have found myself in situation that I have to offer support to individual going through significant life events.  A colleague had lost his father in a road accident. It was a very trying moment for him.   He seemed depressed and was confused once he learned about the sudden death. He even didn’t care eating, bathing and taking other personal care activities. I have to make sure he ate; bath and other perform other personal care activities. I used to spend most of my free time with him and whenever am busy working I would advices some of his friends to go and keep him company so that loneliness and feeling of social isolation not to strike his mind. One day as we were having conversation, he started to blame God for his loss. I recognized her was going through spiritual crisis as a result his loss. I organized with members of his faith to offer spiritual support to him which proved to be very help. After three month, he had recovered and was back to his normal life. It was my first time to be in such scenario, at first I was confused of what to do or say to him but I late found advices from internet on how to support bereaved person. The lesson I learnt have been very useful in my life as care taker. The events helped me realized how death and related event can have severe impact on one wellbeing. It also helped realized the various needs of bereaved persons. In my career, a resident in my care home lost his brother, based on my earlier experienced I have to make sure the physical, emotional and other needs were Mets. I organized a group of friend in the care home who would keep him accompanied and would make sure food were served to him and he ate.  

3.3 make recommendation to health and social care organization to improve services available to offer support to individual experiencing significant life events.

There are several things that can be done by care home to improve services available to resident experiencing significant life events and their social network.  As good practice, care support for individual experiencing significant life events should be provided in a manner that respects, preserve the dignity, promote independences and choice of the affected person. Policies, standards and procedures set by industry regulator and professional such as NICE guidelines on improving supportive and palliative care for adults with cancer, When a Patient Dies guideline by Department of health among others should be adhered to. In additional to observing health and social care principles, care home should also offer appropriate support to their staffs .as reveled by study conducted by Boerner, et al (2013), staffs also goes through some form of grieving when their residents or patients is affected by significant life events such as death. Similar finding was also noted by Marcella and Kelley (2015), who concluded that staffs who had contacts with deceased person grieve in normal way as other affected person. If proper support is not offered to such individual, he/she might found the job uninteresting, unrewarding and not worthy doing which may increase the rate of labor turnover. They should therefore be supported and cared for to make sure they also cope with feeling of grieving and are duly motivated to continue offering high level of services. Finally, the competency of staffs play key role in offering support to the affected person, staffs training needs assessment should be regular exercises and training should be offered based on the needs identified. Staff motivation should also be the focus of management practices to ensure staffs put their best effort in delivery of quality care.

 Conclusion

In this section I have learnt that health and social care organization respond to needs of people experiencing significant life event ion different way. I have also learned that principle of care which includes respect and dignity; independence, choice, informed choice and communication are at the center of any care support offered to individual experiencing significant life events. I have also learned that, there are several standard, procedure and policy that guide care professional and organization in delivery of supports.