10 Older Adults 287
Social support emerges as one of the most important factors in mitigating
the negative impact of loss and contributing to resilience. However, it is
the older adult’s perception of this support that determines its meaning-
fulness and whether the support enables the older adult to derive comfort.
New research (Ghesquiere, 2014) validates the importance of social support
networks in engaging older adults in effective care for complicated grief. Older
adults attempted to obtain help with their grieving process from a variety
of individuals, including family, friends, physicians, grief groups, and men-
tal health professionals until they found a treatment that they felt met their
needs (Ghesquiere, 2014). One’s social network helped to shape older adults’
support-seeking behavior. Thus, it is essential that older adults consciously
work to maintain robust social relationships.
Increasing longevity as well as increasing numbers of baby boomers who
are becoming seniors may be influencing the growth of the Positive Aging
movement. This movement urges seniors to use their wisdom, experience, and
passion to reinvent themselves beyond midlife. Simultaneously, death cafes
have become popular in many urban areas and the death-with-dignity move-
ment has taken hold across the United States. Aging and death have seemingly
become more acceptable as topics of conversation.
Despite the major health challenges that shape how older adults man-
age their multiple losses, potentially leading to complicated mourning, some
research demonstrates that older adults appear to rate their life experiences as
more positive than do younger adults (Schryer & Ross, 2014). A classic study
measured grief responses of widows and widowers of different age groups
over the first year of bereavement and found that older widows and widowers
saw themselves as adjusting better to their loss and experienced less depres-
sion and anxiety than other age groups. Another recent study (Foley, Timonen, &
Hardiman, 2014) found that although all participants struggled between fight-
ing and accepting ALS, older adults (70+) were more accepting of this life-
threatening disease and of death than were younger and midlife participants.
Seniors may actually adapt and cope with severe stressors with less depres-
sion than younger adults.
Discussion Questions
- Using the vignette at the beginning of this chapter and the reading on the
older veteran at the end, how might you as a practitioner intervene with
each of these older adults using the dual process model (DPM; loss orienta-
tion/restoration orientation) or interventions not used by the practitioners
in these cases? Describe what theories might inform your work other than
the DPM.
- What are the steps you would take if you were assigned an older adult who
was on hospice care?
- If you were assigned an older adult with multiple losses, what might you do
to ameliorate complicated mourning?
