Action-Facilitating Support
What are the two main categories of coping strategies and social support?
action-facilitating and nurturing
What or who is an example of social support that you could turn to talk about a sickness with?
family, close friends. Typically your support group even when you are not going through illness or stress.
In the article about being a caregiver Kristina Brown discusses many of the hardships she faces caring for her mother. What do you think could be a potential hardship for caregivers? This does not have to be something that Kristina Brown faced.
Answers can include: Stress and impacted physical/mental health (burnout), giving up things a person did or was apart of to make time for caregiving, financial hardships as outcome of caregiving (related to paying for doctors appointments, or because they have to take time off of job), etc.
What are some emotions that are common to feel while grieving?
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. All emotions are completely individualized and grief is not linear or structured.
How could the buffering hypothesis be incorporated for someone who has experienced a traumatic event?
The buffering hypothesis would suggest that the social support is important during a stressful experience. So for someone who has experienced a traumatic event, they would lean on a strong relationship to buffer them from their stress.
Name one tip for being a supportive listener. How are the teachers and counseling representatives being supportive listeners for the students?
For example, the teachers focus on the students and give them a platform in which they are encouraged to share their emotions.
What are some examples of the pros/cons of having a support system?
PROS: feeling valued, direct correlation between having a good support system and health habits, tendency to eat healthier, better adaptation to lifestyle after disability (ex: losing vision... more capable and willing to adapt to lifestyle with more support from others)
CONS: overwhelming, constant reminder of your disability or illness, over empathizing
What are some ways that caregivers themselves could receive care/support?
support groups, spending time with their friends or families, taking a break, taking time for themselves, getting words of encouragement from the people they’re caring for or others, etc.
Why are the ‘five stages of grief’ inaccurate and faulty?
Grief is unpredictable and cannot be limited to only 5 stages. Grief is neither conveniently structured nor possessing an endpoint. ex: Dr. Delaney explains grief as “a large dark mass in a jar"
How would nurturing support affect someone suffering from childhood trauma?
Nurturing support would boost one’s self esteem, give them a feeling of value, would acknowledge and express emotions better, and provide companionship.
What is the main difference between esteem support and emotional support? Which most accurately represents the program implemented in Washington-Lee Elementary?
esteem support focuses on efforts to make another person feel valued while emotional support focuses on efforts to acknowledge and understand how someone is feeling
What are the risks of seeking social support from other people?
feeling like a burden, invasion of privacy, impact on your opportunities
What is a way to lessen the burden on caregivers?
Could include: supportive communication, providing assistance to caregiver, giving words of encouragement to caregiver, etc.
Describe how people are able to “grow emotionally” after experiencing grief.
Feelings regarding the loss of someone dear don’t disappear or fade but people grow emotionally and become able to fit other feelings around their grief (for other people or for different activities).
The article suggest that a strong relationship can be a buffer against trauma and build resilience. How can a relationship build resilience?
The stability and nurturing of a strong relationship helps individuals when they encounter a problem. It gives them a channel to process the information, and seek help while dealing with the problem which results in resilience.
Answers may include: they are afraid to appear weak, reluctant to upset others, uncomfortable sharing
Would you seek out social support from someone who has had or currently has the same illness as you?Why or why not?
(open-ended) answers may include: they can share knowledge with you about specific medications or treatments that were helpful, they can be viewed as a mentor to help you through difficult times
What is an example of a reason that so many people struggle to balance the dialectic between sacrificing themselves and caring for their loved ones? For some ideas: Kristina Brown struggled with this balance, what were some reasons that made this balance so hard for her?
Answers may include: financial burden, time burden, love family but also need to create a future for themselves, want to attend school far away but also need to stay with family, etc.
Explain why grief does not involve “moving on”.
If someone mattered to you in life, they will continue to matter to you after they die, you just have to find a different way to relate to them. Kelley Lynn says, “When it comes to the death of someone you love, there is no such thing as moving on.”
In coping with a traumatic childhood event, would problem solving or emotional adjustment be more apparent? Why?
Emotional adjustment would be more apparent because the individual will have to respond to events that occured in the past. Problem solving would involve events that could still be changed.
What is the "dilemma" Charchuk mentions about showing emotion in situations with healthcare professionals? How does this positively or negatively affect our ability and willingness to openly communicate with care providers?
if we show emotion, health professionals would consider that she was incapable of hearing the hard truths and making important decisions. With this assumption, we are more reluctant to openly communicate with care providers.
What are potential pros/cons from using social media as a platform to share illness and seek social support?
PROS: platforms are open to the public and can reach a large audience, easier to gain support, increases possibility of coming in contact with people who have the same illness as you have or had
CONS: invasion of privacy
What is an example of legislation that has been passed in order to provide caregivers relief or aid?
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, Publicly funded long term care benefit passed by Washington: provides individuals $100 a day, with a lifetime cap of $36,500, to pay for services including caregiving, meal delivery and nursing home fees; lawmakers estimate that the measure will ultimately save the state billions in Medicaid costs
What are some ways to help yourself come to terms with your feelings or help someone else going through the same process?
You could join or start a campaign, raise awareness of whatever it is that caused your loved one’s death, or write a blog about your experience with grief, start a journal (private), create a ritual involving the person who passed away.
Nurturing support is important in overcoming childhood traumas. Between esteem support, emotional support, and social network support, which would you find to be most beneficial and why?
(Answers will vary)
Esteem support - makes individual feel more valued and competent, would ease feelings of hopelessness
Emotional support - acknowledging and understanding what the individual is feeling, beneficial when addressing events that cannot be changed
Social network support - support groups allow individuals to relate to others, shows that they are not alone, express and receive empathy