COURSE OUTCOMES After completing this course, the learner will be able to:. Identify theoretical models, definitions of death and associated stages, and cultural and religious beliefs and practices. Describe supportive care for the dying patient and their family, including palliative and hospice care, methods for conveying wishes for end-of-life care, and advanced directives. Describe methods for assisting survivors and communities experiencing loss of different types, including traumatic deaths, homicide, and suicide.
Describe the grief process in a variety of settings, including in the community and workplace. Recognize the importance of self-care strategies to cope with and prevent occupational burnout and compassion fatigue. HOW TO RECEIVE CE CREDIT FOR THIS COURSE. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Barbara Rubel, BS, MA, BCETS, CPBC, is a dynamic keynote speaker, trainer, consultant, and acclaimed, nationally recognized author. Barbara received a BS in Psychology and an MA in Community Health, with a concentration in thanatology, from Brooklyn College. She is a board-certified expert in traumatic stress; Diplomate, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress; Certified Bereavement Specialist; and Certified Pastoral Bereavement Counselor. Barbara was featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Fatal Mistakes, narrated by Mariette Hartley.
As a bereavement specialist, Barbara has supported terminally ill individuals, facilitated bereavement support groups, and taught graduate and master’s-level courses at Brooklyn College. Through ShareGrief, she supports the bereaved internationally. She is the author of the book But I Didn’t Say Goodbye and contributing writer in Thin Threads: Grief and Renewal and Open to Hope’s Fresh Grief. Her keynotes on compassion fatigue energize and motivate healthcare professionals to build resilience. Barbara’s website is.
Barbara Rubel has disclosed that she has no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to this course book. ABOUT THE PEER REVIEWER Dianne Hutto Douglas, DNS, APRN-CNS, is a professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing. She received a Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Nursing and Doctorate of Nursing Science from Louisiana State University Medical Center. Dianne is certified as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse – Clinical Nurse Specialist by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing and has experience in medical-surgical nursing and psychiatric nursing. Her research interests include death, dying, bereavement, and grief resolution; gerontology and geropsychiatric nursing; psychiatric nursing and therapeutic communication; and empathy. Dianne Hutto Douglas has disclosed that she has no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to this course book.
Nurse Planner: Kim V. Cheramie, MSN, RN-BC The planner who worked on this continuing education activity has disclosed that she has no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to this course book. Copy Editor: Graphic World, Inc. Proofreader: Graphic World, Inc.
Western Schools’ courses are designed to provide healthcare professionals with the educational information they need to enhance their career development as well as to work collaboratively on improving patient care. The information provided within these course materials is the result of research and consultation with prominent healthcare authorities and is, to the best of our knowledge, current and accurate at the time of printing. However, course materials are provided with the understanding that Western Schools is not engaged in offering legal, medical, or other professional advice.
Western Schools’ courses and course materials are not meant to act as a substitute for seeking professional advice or conducting individual research. When the information provided in course materials is applied to individual cases, all recommendations must be considered in light of each case’s unique circumstances. Western Schools’ course materials are intended solely for your use and not for the purpose of providing advice or recommendations to third parties. Western Schools absolves itself of any responsibility for adverse consequences resulting from the failure to seek medical, or other professional advice. Western Schools further absolves itself of any responsibility for updating or revising any programs or publications presented, published, distributed, or sponsored by Western Schools unless otherwise agreed to as part of an individual purchase contract.
Products (including brand names) mentioned or pictured in Western Schools’ courses are not endorsed by Western Schools, any of its accrediting organizations, or any state licensing board. COPYRIGHT© 2016—Western Schools. All Rights Reserved.
No part(s) of this material may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or otherwise utilized, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, now existing or hereinafter invented, nor may any part of this course be used for teaching without written permission from the publisher. INTRODUCTION The third edition of this course contains essential information to provide healthcare providers from various educational backgrounds working in diverse clinical settings with an overview of death, dying, and bereavement. All of the chapters have undergone a revision. Current research findings are interjected throughout to provide evidence-based information that can be applied to clinical practice. In addition, several new chapters have been added.
This course recognizes that different healthcare professionals have different learning needs. It addresses these challenges by offering a wide variety of topics related to thanatology. Beginning with a basic understanding of death education and the changing encounters with death through the years, the course reviews ways to become skilled in helping those living with life-threatening illness. As dying perspectives are reviewed, the role of the professional in palliative care and hospice will enable a deeper understanding of providing the best quality of care at the end of life.
The chapter on advance care planning will help learners become better communicators with patients who do not understand the differences between a living will, medical power of attorney, informed consent, and a do-not-resuscitate order. The third edition includes a Palette of Grief ® activity that allows learners to identify their own grief reactions to loss as well as offering a valuable tool to those they help. A new chapter on religious beliefs and practices at end of life concentrates on various doctrines, mourning rituals, and practices at the end of life, including beliefs concerning organ donation and autopsy. In addition, a chapter on communities responding in situations involving sudden death has been included.
Principles of the CRISIS Framework that can alleviate disaster-related bereavement are now included. Because this course is meant for healthcare professionals in many settings, the chapter explores interprofessional education (IPE) and practice as an effective way to learn about building community resilience in loss situations. New to this edition is a chapter on homicide and helping in the immediate aftermath. The chapter on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention has also been updated and greatly expanded. Furthermore, this course will help identify the psychological explanations for suicide and teach effective ways to assess suicidal behaviors and provide support after a suicide.
The new chapter in this course on grief in the workplace will be valuable to any professional, especially a professional responsible for creating bereavement policies. The course provides an overview of helping bereaved adults and children, as well as new information on effective communication skills to be put to use when tragedy strikes. With attention to the healthcare professional’s personal and professional stress, the final chapter concentrates on burnout, compassion fatigue, and building resilience. Providing compassion during a time of need can sometimes be overwhelming without proper support and information. Accordingly, each chapter includes several personal insight boxes that provide learners with an opportunity to reflect on their personal feelings and experiences.
This book will motivate learners to appreciate that every professional can make a difference – by holding the hand of a dying patient, sitting with a bereaved family member, or explaining death to a child – and not experience compassion fatigue in the process. All things considered, whatever the reasoning in choosing this book, learners will walk away with a better understanding of a difficult but inescapable topic. CHAPTER 2 The Influence of Technology on the American Death System LEARNING OBJECTIVE Upon completion of this chapter, the learner will be able to identify the components and functions of the death system. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this chapter, the learner will be able to:. Describe the five components of Kastenbaum’s death system. Identify two roles of the warning and prediction function of the death system.
List ways the system prevents death. Describe ways to dispose of the dead. Identify ways social consolidation can be achieved after a death. INTRODUCTION This chapter will focus on the death system. As long as there is life, there will be death and a system to prevent chaos in times of loss and tragedy. First, the focus is on those people, places, times, objects, and symbols that have functions that help us to manage death in our society.
Healthcare professionals often work in the trenches of the death system. They frequently come into contact with death and dying. They work in places where people take their last breath. They recognize anniversaries of significant losses in their personal and professional lives. There are times when, through ritualization, they honor those patients who have died.
They keep mementos that remind them of those they have helped and rely on their customs and faith to sustain them in death and dying situations. Because no society can escape death, these professionals are an important part of the network that makes up the death system. Next, the focus is on how thanatechnology explores the relationship between death, dying, and bereavement and the Internet. Finally, the emphasis is on the functions of warnings, predictions, and death prevention; caring for those who are dying; disposal of the dead; social consolidation achieved after a death; making sense of death, and socially approved killings. THE AMERICAN DEATH SYSTEM Kastenbaum’s contemporary American death system model (2012) included five components: people, places, times, objects, and symbols. Recently, technology has affected the death system.
The term thanatechnology refers to communication technology used in providing death education, grief counseling, and thanatology research through the Internet. People The first component of the death system is the people who directly or indirectly come into contact with death or dying. Some of the people who work with dying and the dead or come into contact with those grieving include nurses, nursing assistants, social workers, bereavement counselors, home health aides, physicians, medical examiners, emergency medical technicians, cemetery workers, florists, police officers, clergy, life insurance salesmen, counselors, and members of the military. Educators who teach death and dying courses, writers, and researchers are also some of the people who make up the death system model. Funeral directors and their staff are the most recognized group of professionals working in the death system. In the 19th century, carpenters and owners of carts and horses became funeral directors, otherwise known as undertakers. Caring for the dead became a profession, rather than a family responsibility.
During the Civil War, their role across the United States was significant, as bodies of dead soldiers came home needing to be buried. In contemporary society, a newly recognized group of professionals in the death system are virtual bereavement counselors, online death educators, and bereaved individuals on memorial websites. Personal Insight If you were terminally ill or grieving the death of a loved one, would you reach out to any of the people in the thanatechnological death system?
Places The second component of Kastenbaum’s death system model is places (2012). Locations include cemeteries, funeral homes, battlefields, acute-care facilities, long-term care facilities, and home and hospice inpatient units.
Places in a thanatechnological death system include. online bereavement communities and social networking sites for memorialization on websites such as;. blogs for storytelling;.
online bereavement support groups;. Skype on the Internet to communicate with others; and. personal online accounts that are accessed by the bereaved to maintain a virtual connection to the deceased. (Kastenbaum, 2012) Facebook is a social networking website whose mission is to give people the power to share by creating and joining groups focused on a variety of topics. Facebook has more than 901 million active monthly users and 125 billion friendships (Facebook, 2013). Many of these users include memorial groups that commemorate the deceased by uploading photos and posting messages to the group “wall,” which is a public space.
The wall resembles an online message board where other Facebook members can read postings and reply. DeGroot (2012-2013) noted that virtual memorials can include memorial Web pages, funeral home guest books, and memorial groups on social networking sites where people can express their emotions without face-to-face contact. McManus (2012) maintained that virtual memorials establish a new social value for the deceased, and shift bereavement from personal into more publicly shared experiences. Other virtual places include Internet blogs, which have become an innovative way to share narratives. Blogs feature discussions or offer information in chronological order. Genre blogs can focus on a particular topic, such as death, dying, and bereavement.
DeGroot and Carmack (2013) note that public blogs highlight the changing nature of communicating about grief and emphasize how blogs challenge contemporary social death rules. Grief in Western society has been culturally structured to be a private experience and blogging takes grief into the public domain by allowing users to have more time to construct their message, feel less stress from ongoing face-to-face interactions, and experience self-awareness and reflection.
Places also include Skype and Virtual 3-D worlds. Skype is an online communication tool that refers to calling, seeing others through a webcam video, talking through a microphone, and instant messaging worldwide.
Mourners can have a memorial service video call up to 10 people or a group call up to 25 people. Other places in technology appear on the Internet in virtual 3-D worlds such as Second Life, where everyone is a real person and every place is built online by real people. This social environment is made by individuals who create an avatar of themselves. As avatars, they can represent who they are, real bereaved persons, in a virtual funeral chapel or cemetery.
Individuals need to realize that their online accounts will also become a part of the thanatechnological death system upon their decease. Zucker (2012) noted that online companies have the right to delete online accounts within a certain period of time after the person’s death and will protect their digital files from beneficiaries who seek their possession before proper administration, which includes obtaining a copy of the will and a copy of a government-issued I.D. Of the beneficiary.
For beneficiaries to gain access to online accounts, individuals need to make a list of all their digital assets including online accounts and data files, email accounts, websites, hard drives, important Word and Excel documents, online storage accounts, and social media accounts. People should list wishes for each asset for local hardware containing data files.
They can, for example, leave the asset directly to a specified heir, shut down the account, do nothing, archive contents on CD or DVD, create an auto-response on the account, and/or forward all messages to another place (Zucker, 2012). Personal Insight If you were terminally ill or grieving, which places in the thanatechnological death system would you want to visit? Times The third component of the death system includes specific points in time when something happens: holidays, prayers, and anniversaries. Ceremonial or holiday times allow a society to honor and remember the dead. Memorial Day in the United States and the Day of the Dead in Mexico are two holidays that mark society’s mourning.
Prayers for the dead are offered throughout the year, especially on anniversaries of tragic events. A year after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, communities came together to mourn those who died, and fall continues to be a time of the year when people recognize the anniversary of the day when thousands of people lost their lives in a series of terrorist attacks. Since 1997, the Compassionate Friends, an organization that supports families after a child dies, have been holding an annual worldwide candle lighting, during which hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all deceased children (Compassionate Friends, 2014). Also, families are invited to post a message in the online Remembrance Book, which is available during the event at the Compassionate Friends’ national website. In 2011, in only one day, more than 5,000 messages of love were received and posted from across the country, as well as from many other countries. For beneficiaries who are estate planners, the time immediately after the death is when they have to gain access to the decedent’s digital assets and access his or her online footprint (Laise, 2013). Sofka, Gilbert, and Noppe Cupit (2012) have noted that there are certain times that thanatechnology meets numerous short-term and long-term needs such as immediate online communication related to funeral arrangements and memorials at the time of death, and long-term needs such as bereavement support, virtual ceremonies, and ongoing archiving access to information and resources.
Personal Insight If there are specific times in your life when you stop and reflect on a personal loss, is it done weekly, monthly, or annually? Objects The fourth component of the death system is objects: obituaries in local newspapers, tombstones, and death certificates remind the bereaved of the loved one’s death. When we look at caskets, we are immediately reminded of death.
Other items associated with death include personal items belonging to the deceased that can bring comfort. When individuals are in mourning, they are comforted by reminders of their loved ones, and certain objects the deceased owned become significant. New objects in the death system include computers, which have become common household items since the 1980s.
These objects are interactive technologies that offer graphics, sounds, and systems that enable uses, with a touch of a keyboard, order virtual flowers for a grieving friend, invite others similarly bereaved to virtual candle lightings, or allow deceased persons to become digitally immortal. Another item from the object component of the death system is the death certificate, a unique document that memorializes death. Death certificates include the time and cause of death.
After the physician signs the certificate, it is considered a legal proof of death. Each certificate shows the date, time, place, and cause of death. A certified copy of the death certificate is necessary for life insurance and other death benefits.
It is also needed for probate, which is the process that transfers legal title of property from the estate of the individual who has died. Standard Certificate of Death (last updated in 2003) is divided into three parts: decedent information, cause of death, and disposition of the body. (See Figure 2-1.) Available at Death certificates are needed for the family to settle financial affairs. Organizations requiring a copy of the death certificate include.
financial institutions;. probate court;.
Social Security Administration;. life insurance companies;. stocks, bonds, and mutual fund companies;. the IRS and state tax agency;. pension administrators;. automobile creditors or other lenders; and.
organizations governing real estate owned. Funeral directors can request death certificates for 6 months after the death. If the family needs additional death certificates, they must contact the Health Department or Registrar. The family must substantiate a request with proof of identity (e.g., birth certificate, marriage license, income tax return). Requests for a certified death record should include the decedent’s full name, place of death, relationship to the person who is requesting the record, and the reason for requesting the record. Family members in these cases will be asked certain questions, with the answers recorded on the death certificate. This practice was instituted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, because deceitful individuals were stealing identities of the deceased.
Personal Insight If there are any objects in the American death system with which you are uncomfortable, can you think of some reasons you feel that way about the objects? Symbols The last group of components of the death system is symbols identified with death, represented through behaviors, actions, and language. Traditional symbols, as well as symbolic actions, can bring solace to the bereaved or simply be reminders of death. A few common symbolic actions associated with death include Customs: Wearing black (European) or white (Asian) to symbolize mourning. Faith: Jewish mourners wear a torn piece of black ribbon on their lapel; the Sacrament of the Sick or last rites for dying Catholics. Traditional figures: The Grim Reaper, who wears a long robe and carries a scythe (a curved, sharp blade at the end of a long handle). Culture: Human skull and skeleton.
Animals: Crows, vultures, and bats. Architecture: Tombs and tombstones. Government: Flags at half-mast. Language: Common verbal expressions that refer to death are. dead ringer,. scared to death,.
dead serious,. talk a subject to death,. dead ahead,.
dead as a doornail, and. dying to meet you.
Two common verbal expressions that refer to killing are. kill the lights, and. killing time. Other verbal symbols identified with death are called euphemisms, which often replace the words death, dead, and dying with what people feel is a more pleasant word or phrase.
However, Corr and Corr (2013) note that the excessive use of euphemisms when talking about death provides a distancing from this basic life event. Professionals should not use terms such as passed on or expired instead of using the word dead. Other common euphemisms include. laid to rest,. resting in peace,.
called home,. God took him,. gone away, and. merely sleeping.
Whereas euphemisms are usually neutral, death dysphemisms, which can be considered offensive, include. croaked,. bought the farm,. down for the long count,.
pushing up daisies,. sleep with the fishes, and. kicked the bucket. Language can also be communicated without words. Current symbols used in the thanatechnological death system are emoticons, which are pictures that represent a frowning facial expression (Urban Dictionary, 2013).
Bereaved individuals can share their mood by typing letters, numbers, or symbols to form a shape that represents sadness in grief. Examples include.:( frown;.:S confused;.:’( shedding a tear;.;; crying; and. REFERENCES Adamson, S., & Holloway, M.
A sound track of your life: Music in contemporary UK funerals. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 65(1), 33-54.
Amnesty International. Death penalty and innocence. Retrieved from Caswell, G.
Beyond words: Some uses of music in the funeral setting. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 64(4), 319-334. Celebrant Foundation & Institute. Welcome to the Celebrant Foundation & Institute!
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Retrieved from Cremation Association of North America. Why cremation? Retrieved from Cremation Society of Michigan. Retrieved from Cryonics Institute. Frequently asked questions. Retrieved from Death Penalty Information Center.
Death sentences in 2012. Retrieved from DeGroot, J. Maintaining relational continuity with the deceased on Facebook. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 65(3), 195-212.
M., & Carmack, H. “It may not be pretty, but it’s honest”: Examining parental grief on the callapitter blog. Death Studies, 37(5), 448-470. Facebook product/service. Retrieved from Federal Trade Commission.
Consumer information: The FTC Funeral Rule. Retrieved from Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Protecting our communities. Retrieved from Funeral Helper. Humorous death quotes. Retrieved from Green Burial Council.
What is green burial? Retrieved from / Green Burials. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch. US: Maryland abolishes death penalty. Retrieved from Institute of Medicine, Committee on Integrating Primary Care and Public Health, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. Primary care and public health: exploring integration to improve population health.
Retrieved from Jones, R. P., Cox, D., & Navarro-Rivera, J. Public Religion Research Institute: The 2012 American values survey: How Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated will shape the 2012 election and beyond. Retrieved from Johnson, S. Reuters: Eco-friendly green burials catching on in the U.S. Retrieved from Kastenbaum, R. Death, society, and human experience (11th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Protecting digital assets after your death.
Retrieved from McManus, R. Editorial: Culture, death and dying with dignity. Health Sociology Review, 21(4), 370-372. National Funeral Directors Association.
Statistics: General funeral service facts. Retrieved from National Home Funeral Alliance. Welcome to the NHFA. What is a home funeral? Retrieved from New Orleans Official Guide.
The jazz funeral. Retrieved from Noble, D. Natural burial program update: 2012 a record-setting year. Retrieved from North Dakota Office of Attorney General. FTC’s Funeral Rule.
Retrieved from Shaw, G.B. Funeral Helper.
Funeral death quotes. Retrieved on August 12, 2013 from. Sofka, C., Gilbert, K., & Noppe Cupit, I.
Dying, death, and grief in an online universe: For counselors and educators. New York, NY: Springer. Christopher’s history.
Retrieved from Trimarchi, M. How stuff works: How natural burial works: Green Burial. Retrieved from Urban Dictionary.
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Understanding Thanatechnology. Canadian Funeral News, 40(4), 4. Some funeral homes choose fun ‘life celebrations.’ USA Today. Retrieved from Zucker, S. Consider digital estate planning services. Retrieved from.
If ever there was an area requiring that the research-practice gap be bridged, surely it occurs where thanatologists engage with people dealing with human mortality and loss. The field of thanatology-the study of death and dying-is a complex, multidisciplinary area that encompases the range of human experiences, emotions, expectations, and realities. The Handbook of Thanatology is the most authoritative volume in the field, providing a single source of up-to-date scholarship, research, and practice implications. The handbook is the recommended resource for preparation for the pr. Rating: (not yet rated) Subjects. More like this.
Find more information about: ISBN: 5500 OCLC Number: 854976337 Notes: Chapter 37 Life Span Issues and Death Education. Description: 1 online resource (558 pages) Contents: Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Introduction to the First Edition; Introduction to the Second Edition; Certifications in Thanatology: How the Handbook of Thanatology Can Assist; Body of Knowledge (BOK) Matrix; List of Contributors; Part 1 Dying: Introduction to Part 1; Chapter 1 Culture, Socialization, and Dying; Chapter 2 Religion, Spirituality, and Dying; Chapter 3 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Dying; Chapter 4 Life Span Issues and Dying; Chapter 5 The Family, Larger Systems, and the Dying Process. Chapter 6 Ethical and Legal Issues Related to Dying and End-of-Life CarePart 2 End-of-Life Decision Making Introduction to Part 2; Chapter 7 Culture, Socialization, and End-of-Life Decision Making; Chapter 8 End-of-Life Care: Spirituality and Religion; Chapter 9 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on End-of-Life Decision Making; Chapter 10 Life Span Issues and End-of-Life Decision Making; Chapter 11 The Family, Larger Systems, and End-of-Life Decision Making; Chapter 12 Ethical and Legal Issues in End-of-Life Decision Making; Chapter 13 End-of-Life Decision Making: An Irish Perspective. Part 3 Loss, Grief, and Mourning: Introduction to Part 3Chapter 14 Culture and Socialization in Death, Grief, and Mourning; Chapter 15 Religion and Spirituality in Loss, Grief, and Mourning; Chapter 16 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Loss, Grief, and Mourning; Chapter 17 Life Span Issues and Loss, Grief, and Mourning: Childhood and Adolescence; Chapter 18 Life Span Issues and Loss, Grief, and Mourning: Adulthood; Chapter 19 The Family, Larger Systems, and Loss, Grief, and Mourning; Chapter 20 Ethical and Legal Issues and Loss, Grief, and Mourning. Part 4 Assessment and Intervention: Introduction to Part 4Chapter 21 Culture and Socialization in Assessment and Intervention; Chapter 22 Religion, Spirituality, and Assessment and Intervention; Chapter 23 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Assessment and Intervention; Chapter 24 Life Span Issues and Assessment and Intervention; Chapter 25 Assessment and Intervention in the Family and Larger Systems; Chapter 26 Ethical and Legal Issues in Assessment and Intervention; Chapter 27 On Bereavement Interventions: Controversies and Concerns; Part 5 Traumatic Death: Introduction to Part 5. Chapter 28 Culture, Socialization, and Traumatic DeathChapter 29 Religion, Spirituality, and Traumatic Death; Chapter 30 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Traumatic Death; Chapter 31 Life Span Issues and Traumatic Death; Chapter 32 The Family, Larger Systems, and Traumatic Death; Chapter 33 Ethical and Legal Issues in Traumatic Death; Part 6 Death Education: Introduction to Part 6; Chapter 34 Culture, Socialization, and Death Education; Chapter 35 Religion, Spirituality, and Death Education; Chapter 36 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Death Education. If ever there was an area requiring that the research-practice gap be bridged, surely it occurs where thanatologists engage with people dealing with human mortality and loss.
Pdf Handbook Of Thanatology 2nd Edition Free Adventures
The field of thanatology-the study of death and dying-is a complex, multidisciplinary area that encompases the range of human experiences, emotions, expectations, and realities. The Handbook of Thanatology is the most authoritative volume in the field, providing a single source of up-to-date scholarship, research, and practice implications. The handbook is the recommended resource for preparation for the pr.