Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy (Living with Grief)

334 Pages·2003·2.8 MB·English

by  Lattanzi-Licht

LIVING WITH GRIEF
COPING WITH PUBLIC
TRAGEDY
EDITED BY MARCIA LATTANZI-
LICHT AND KENNETH J.DOKA
Foreword by Jack D.Gordon, Chairman,
Hospice Foundation of America
Brunner-Routledge
This book is part of Hospice Foundation of
America’s Living With Grief® series.
Support has been provided in part by the
Foundation for End of Life Care.
®
© 2003 Hospice Foundation of America
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
®
This book is part of HFA’s Living With Grief series.
Ordering information:
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New York, NY 10001
To order by phone, call toll-free: 1–800–634–7064
Or send orders on a 24-hour telefax: 1–800–248–4724
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For bulk quantity orders call Hospice Foundation of America: 800–854–
3402
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or
Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Or write:
Hospice Foundation of America
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Washington, DC 20009
800–854–3402
www.hospicefoundation.org
Managing Editor: Judith Rensberger
Copy Editor: Pat Tschirhart-Spangler
Cover Design: Patricia McBride
Typesetting and Design: Pam Page Cullen
Cover Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coping with public tragedy / edited by Marcia Lattanzi-Licht and
Kenneth
J.Doka ; foreword by Jack D.Gordon.
p.cm. -- (Living with grief)
Includes bibliographical references.
iii
ISBN 0-203-50518-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-57710-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 1-893349-04-7 (pbk.)
1. Disasters--Psychological aspects. 2. Disasters--Social aspects.
3. Crisis intervention (Mental health services) I. Lattanzi-Licht,
Marcia E. II. Doka, Kenneth J. III. Series.
BF789.D5C67 2003
155.9'35-dc21
2003001429
DEDICATIONS
To Mike Licht, my love and my strength, and to
Steven Lattanzi, my son and my delight.
—Marcia Lattanzi-Licht
In loving memory of Catherine Sanders, a
wonderful colleague whose pioneering work and
life illustrated the transforming power of grief.
—Kenneth J.Doka
For all whose lives have been touched by public
tragedy, and in appreciation of all first
responders.
—Marcia Lattanzi-Licht and Kenneth J.Doka
CONTENTS
Foreword viii
Jack D.Gordon
Acknowledgments x
PART I: DIMENSIONS OF PUBLIC TRAGEDY 1
1. What Makes a Tragedy Public? 3
Kenneth J.Doka
2. 9/11: A Grief Therapist’s Journal 15
Sherry R.Schachter
3. HurricaneAndrew 26
Rick Eyerdam
4. Looking Back at Columbine 40
Larry Beresford
5. When a Public Figure Dies 51
William M.Lamers
PART II: RESPONSES TO PUBLIC TRAGEDY 60
6. Loss, Grief, and Trauma in Public Tragedy 62
Charles A.Corr
7. Effects of Public Tragedy on First 77
Responders
Dana G.Cable & Terry L.Martin
8. Public Grief and the News Media 86
Paul R.Dolan
9. Different Faiths, Different Perceptions of 91
Public Tragedy
Janice Harris Lord, Melissa Hook & Sharon
English
vi
10. Funeral Directors and Public Tragedy 110
Elizabeth M.Bradley & LaVone V.Hazell
PART III: COPING WITH PUBLIC TRAGEDY 119
11. Critical Incident Stress Management and 122
Other Crisis Counseling Approaches
Louis A.Gamino
12. Talking to Children about Terrorism 139
Linda Goldman
13. Schools, Children and Public Tragedy 152
Barbara L.Bouton
14. Meaning Making in the Wake of Public 167
Tragedy
David A.Thompson & Edward J.Holland
15. Memorialization, Ritual and Public 182
Tragedy
Kenneth J.Doka
16. A Healing Ritual at Yankee Stadium 194
David Benke
17. Public Tragedy and the Arts 205
Sandra Bertman
18. Victim Advocacy in the Aftermath of 221
Tragedy
Marlene A.Young
19. Lessons from Combat Veterans 234
Alfonso R.Batres
20. Workplace Interventions 249
Rachel E.Kaul
21. Public Tragedy and Complicated 268
Mourning
Therese A.Rando
vii
PART IV: THE ROLE OF HOSPICE IN PUBLIC 281
TRAGEDY
22. Collaborating with Relief Agencies: A 282
Guide for Hospice
Nadine Reimer Penner
23. Hospice: A Resource in Community 295
Tragedies
Marcia Lattanzi-Licht
Resources 308
Jacqueline Garrick
FOREWORD
Jack D.Gordon
Chairman, Hospice Foundation of
America
The year 2003 is a momentous one for both the hospice movement
and Hospice Foundation of America. It is the 20th year of the
Medicare Hospice Benefit. In 1983, Congress formally recognized
the importance of compassionate care for the dying by
institutionalizing hospice as a reimbursable service. One of the
core services of hospice is the commitment to ongoing
bereavement counseling to the family. In fact, hospice is the only
Medicare benefit that continues service to the family for up to a
year after the death of the patient.
In the 20 years since the start of the Medicare benefit, and
because of the growing societal importance of bereavement
services, hospices have become an important community
resource on grief and bereavement. Maintaining a high level of
quality in grief counseling, spiritual care, and emotional support
is difficult to attain. To assist in that, Hospice Foundation of
America provides as one of its central services innovative free or
low-cost educational opportunities for grief counselors.
The year 2003 also finds HFA celebrating the 10th anniversary
of the Living With Grief® teleconference series, of which this book
is the companion volume. The application of bereavement
services has evolved in many ways over the past decade, and we
at HFA are proud that this series has been a part of that
evolution. When we select a topic for each year’s teleconference
and accompanying book, a key consideration is how we can help
hospices broaden their community outreach. I believe that
hospice has many contributions to make to a community,
primarily as the basic resource for bereavement counseling, but
also as a major influence in increasing patient autonomy in the
health system.
ix
This year’s topic, Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy,
also is designed to give local hospices an opportunity to make
known their capabilities in helping their communities when
terrible events occur. The chapter by Marcia Lattanzi-Licht
reviews hospice participation in a number of community
disasters. It is a record in which everyone involved in the hospice
movement can take pride.
From television, radio, and daily newspapers, we get detailed
and sometimes graphic accounts of the results of natural
disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires, as well
as man-made disasters such as multiple shootings, auto
accidents, and, of course, the devastating terrorist attacks that
occurred on September 11, 2001.
These events affect everyone, because there is always the
thought, there but for the grace of God, go I. So when we deal
with such events, we are concerned about the feelings and
thoughts of everyone including, obviously, family and loved
ones. That is what makes this topic such a difficult one to
understand. We bring our own experiences, as well as our own
attitudes toward life and death, to the attempt to understand
what has happened. What we bring is not only our impression of
the event, but also the memories and fears that it stimulates.
Because everyone’s experience is different, we have to think hard
to arrive at a common basis for discussing how we can help
others and ourselves.
It is the Foundation’s hope that a careful reading of this book
will provide readers with a better understanding of the nature of
this kind of trauma. Ideally, we would never again have to face
this problem, but we know that is not possible. Being better
prepared can only make the aftermath less disrupting for
everyone affected. •