Lost Family Members Research Articles

Saúde mental das crianças e adolescentes em tempos de pandemia: uma revisão narrativa

Objetivo: Realizar uma revisão narrativa acerca dos impactos na saúde mental de crianças e adolescentes durante períodos de pandemia. Revisão bibliográfica: Foram analisadas as múltiplas consequências para a saúde mental infantojuvenil, avaliando-se os aspectos relacionados a doença em questão e suas repercussões psicossomáticas desencadeadas ou intensificadas em momentos excepcionais de isolamento social. Verificou-se prevalência do medo em perder familiares ou de adoecimento, ao ponto de desencadear pensamentos negativos constantes. Diversos acontecimentos durante a pandemia podem ser traumáticos para esta faixa etária, sejam o confinamento a pequenos espaços, a falta de interação social ou a ameaça da doença, podendo gerar problemas agudos ou crônicos. Considerações finais: As pandemias estão associadas as mais diversas implicações na vida de crianças e adolescentes, podendo ser observadas sensações de medo, tédio e solidão, além de alterações dos padrões de sono, alimentação e comportamento. Portanto, é fundamental que a família assuma um papel de proteção e cuidado, desenvolvendo atividades lúdicas e práticas para aliviar o estresse, dentro de um ambiente seguro e acolhedor, respeitando os limites de uma rotina saudável e contribuindo para a preservação do bem-estar e apoio mútuo dentro da coletividade.

Age-related loss of resources and perceived old age in China

AbstractLife expectancy in China has increased. This paper explores the age when older adults (aged 60 and above) consider themselves to be an ‘older person’ and how age-related loss of resources (five dimensions: early cumulative factors, decline and loss of health resources, reduction and loss of economic resources, weakening and loss of social support resources, and personal role transition and experiences of losing family members) could impact their perceived old age. Using two waves of data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey (CLASS) in 2014 and 2016 (6,244 participants in 2014 and 2,989 participants in both 2014 and 2016), we found that the mean perceived old age is around 70 years at baseline (2014). Higher level of educational attainment and occupational types (early cumulative factors), better health condition, receiving support from friends and taking care of grandchildren are significantly associated with the perception that old age begins at an older age at baseline, while being Han-Chinese, being an urban resident (early cumulative factors) and reporting better health condition have significant positive effects on the perception that old age begins at an older age in the later wave. Our findings suggest that the age standard of older adults should be adjusted dynamically in response to social development and longevity, and also highlight the importance of early cumulative factors in shaping the ageing process besides age-related factors.

Mental Well-Being (Depression, Loneliness, Insomnia, Daily Life Fatigue) during COVID-19 Related Home-Confinement-A Study from Poland.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a great threat to both physical and mental health as it may lead to psychological stress connected with an economic crisis, threat of unemployment, or fear of losing family members. Emerging data shows that the general public may be vulnerable to the pandemic-related stress and experience frequently prevalent anxiety. A study involving 471 subjects (85.6% female) was conducted online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the following scales: Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Revised University of California, Los Angeles (R-UCLA) Loneliness Scale, and Daily Life Fatigue scale (DLF). Women had higher mean scores of depression, loneliness, and daily life fatigue and more often than males started exercising. Among people professionally active before the pandemic, there were more cases of increased alcohol consumption than among students. No differences in alcohol consumption patterns were found between genders. People living alone had higher scores of loneliness and daily life fatigue compared to those living with someone. Respondents who started taking any new drugs during COVID-19 home confinement had higher outcomes in all questionnaires. During home confinement, high scores of depression, insomnia, loneliness, and everyday fatigue were observed.

“DORA BRUDER” AS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING OF PATRICK MODIANO

Trauma become a part of memory in human’s life in regard with past. The form oftrauma as an emotional scar inside an individual can follow the heirs, reflected in the life oflater generations. It also happens in literature, as a way to unconsciously share the traumaticevents, as the result of author’s memories. Dora Bruder is a novel by Patrick Modiano whichis written as the way to release the experience of diffculties in the past that likely become histrauma. This research will describe the condition of Dora Bruder as an autobiographicalnovel of Modiano because it is happened to share the same difficulties, such as a bad-termrelationship with family and lost family members. The research is based on theory of Memoryby Anne Whitehead and Postmemory by Marianne Hirsch.

Message from the President: ASLO in the Time of Covid‐19

Message from the President: <scp>ASLO</scp> in the Time of Covid‐19

COVID-19: Its Eventual Defeat

Medical AcupunctureVol. 32, No. 3 EditorialFree AccessCOVID-19: Its Eventual DefeatRichard C. NiemtzowRichard C. Niemtzow—Richard C. Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, Editor-in-ChiefSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:16 Jun 2020https://doi.org/10.1089/acu.2020.29144.rcnAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail First, I would like to express my deepest condolences to those of the readership who have lost family members and loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, many of us have experienced major disruptions/disasters in our clinical practices and businesses and are challenged to start over. For the moment, no remedy to eradicate the virus has been discovered—scientists are working furiously for a solution.1 In the United States, many states are striving to reopen and people who are tired of staying sheltered debate the greater risk: Economic ruin or infection with the virus? Even now, we learn with dismay that young children might be vulnerable to “pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome,” a Kawasaki-like disease, potentially associated with COVID-19.2Despite this catastrophic period in our lives, I remain optimistic. I am sure that our readership has used acupuncture/herbs to help many patients infected with COVID 19; perhaps not necessarily to effect a cure but rather a suppression of the symptoms to help achieve a remission. Medical Acupuncture is interested in what you have achieved and learned to treat your patients. The journal now has a bigger voice. We are indexed in PubMed! There are two ways to communicate how you have helped patients with COVID-19. Respond to our call for articles in a Special Issue on Internal Medicine and COVID-19 or write a Letter to the Editor. All of us desperately desire helpful information and insights. Thank you in advance.So, where do we go from here? Medical Acupuncture will continue to steer through the “rough seas” and stay on course bringing you the latest articles that will help you and your patients. I am certain there are quieter waters ahead. I remain optimistic that we will find our new path. Unfortunately, the way back may no longer be possible. Life can be brutal, but we must get up and move forward. That is our challenge. But most importantly, have the vision to achieve a better future. Shakespeare said: “Dream in light years, challenge miles, walk step by step.”3Go the distance!

In This Issue: Open Call Papers and Early Responses to COVID-19

First paragraphs: On behalf of the JAFSCD staff and community, I would like to extend condolences to anyone in the JAFSCD community—our shareholders—who have lost family members or colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are with you. We also wish anyone who has contracted the virus our best wishes for a speedy and full recovery, and hope for a better future for those whose lives have been turned topsy-turvey by the pandemic. On May 26, 2020, the United States officially reported losing 100,000 individuals, many of whom were vulnerable to this plague—especially the poor, people of color, the elderly, and essential workers. This represents a moral and systemic fail­ure for the world’s richest country. As Americans are cobbling together an assortment of food provisioning strategies, what we are witnessing is a demonstration of just how fragile American food security is in a time of crisis. However, as you’ll see in this open call issue, COVID-19 is also highlighting our strengths and creativity, and what we can build on in a future food system that contributes to our overall health, well-being, and social resiliency. . . .

“I know how it is when nobody sees you”: oral-history performance methods for staging trauma

ABSTRACT In this essay, I argue that, in a society oversaturated with images and narratives of racial trauma, creating theatre for social change requires more than staging minoritarian bodies with the aim of making their trauma visible. Contemporary oral-history performance practitioners must face the challenge of how to make the hypervisible meaningful. Drawing on my own production The (M)others, an oral-history performance adapted from the narratives of Bay-Area women who have lost family members to police violence, I present a methodology that works to disrupt the ways contemporary audiences are invited to passively consume, rather than actively intervene in, acts of racial trauma.

Visualizing Vulnerability and Capturing the Pandemic's Human Toll

COVID-19 has created a crisis with little precedent. Illinoisans have lost family members. People have died in hospitals alone. But the human toll of the pandemic can be measured in more than lives lost. There have been other health effects, such as delayed surgery and lack of access to primary and behavioral healthcare. Many have lost jobs, which means lost health insurance, lost wages, and food insecurity. In Illinois, a half million people filed for unemployment in five weeks. For most people, the ability to shelter, clothe, feed, and care for ourselves and our families comes through productive work. Staying at home has created the potential for increased incidents of partner and child abuse. Sheltering in place has led to feelings of hopelessness and isolation. It has frayed emotions and relationships. The existential threat posed by COVID-19 is unlike anything most Americans have experienced—except, perhaps, those who lived through the Great Depression. The Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) launched a series of Pandemic Stress Indicators to measure and document the social and economic toll of the pandemic. For the first Pandemic Stress Indicator, IGPA collaborated with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Urban Data Visualization Lab to develop maps that visualize and identify compounding vulnerabilities, both to COVID-19 and to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. Many Illinoisans face compounding vulnerabilities: to the virus itself and to the economic repercussions. Some came into the pandemic with hypertension, cardiovascular, and other health conditions that increase the risk for being a severe patient. Others struggled financially long before the pandemic. Persons of color and those living in poverty number among those hardest hit by the pandemic. Developing a wholistic understanding of the pandemic’s human toll and visualizing vulnerabilities of persons and communities is crucial to minimizing the pandemic’s total harm, while helping fragile persons and populations to emerge as unscathed as possible.

Healing and Growth after Trauma in a Rural Australian Community-A Case Study

This community case study outlines the development of a small group trauma recovery program (Leading from within), after several suicides created widespread community trauma. My training and almost 30 years experience as a Clinical Social Worker and my personal experience of trauma provided the impetus for this program which developed 20 years ago. The theoretical underpinnings include behavioural, depth, positive and energy psychology, trauma theory and the neuroscience of stress and trauma, attachment theory, family theory, wilderness theory, mind/body medicine, human potential theory, metaphysics (the science of Mind to Matter) [1], psychosynthesis and epigenetics (including the predisposition to transgenerational trauma). Some individual practitioners have also influenced the thinking behind the program development: Viktor Frankl, a Jewish Psychiatrist developed Logotherapy, lost family members, his thesis and all of his possessions during the holocaust and spent considerable time in Auschwitz [2]. He observed people in the camp and saw a demonstration of his theory. His observation was that those who made some meaning for themselves in the situation of utter privation were the ones who seemed to survive the best. He noticed, for example that people who gave their last piece of bread to help someone else seemed to do better than others, even those who seemed physically stronger.

Medical Students Can be Trained to be Life-Saving First Aid Instructors for Laypeople: A Feasibility Study from Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Bystanders can improve the outcome in emergencies by activating the "chain of survival." Gaza's (Palestine) population has little, if any, access to training in Basic Life Support (BLS) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The goal was to recruit local medical students to be life-saving first aid instructors, and have them train 3,000 laypeople in BLS and CPR. One hundred and seventeen medical students from Al Azhar University-Gaza (Gaza City, Palestine) were trained as BLS and CPR instructors. Twelve training hours were delivered in practical BLS and CPR skills, plus four in communication and didactical skills, to enable training of laypeople. Students answered a questionnaire exploring demographics, prior training experience, expectations, and motivation to join the training. Teaching material were developed after the European Resuscitation Council (ERC; Niel, Belgium) guidelines and similar training at The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø, Norway). A total of 117 medical students (52.1% female; 47.9% male), from third through sixth year, completed training, and all were in their early twenties. Ninety-five (81.2%) agreed to answer the questionnaire. Of those, five students lost family members during Israeli military operations. Eighty-two (70.1%) never had hands-on first aid training. Seventy-six (80.0%) hoped the training would improve their community's response to emergencies. With 58 training sessions completed, 1,312 laypeople (596 males; 716 females) were trained: 5.52 lay trainees per student instructor. The majority (n = 1,012; 77.1%) were school students aged 13-20 years. It is feasible to recruit local medical students for practical BLS and CPR trainings targeting laypeople in communities under stress. The training impact on local resilience and patients' outcomes need further studies.

Researching home in social work

Home and belonging are emerging areas of social work research. Very few studies in the social work discipline critically examine how home is broadly experienced or understood. Whilst the notion of home is contested, social work researchers can explore meanings of home in their quest to understand how social workers can contribute to developing a sense of community and belonging. This article presents the findings of an intersectional qualitative study that explored meanings of home in a capital city of Australia, drawing implications for social work. A thematic analysis of 13 semi-structured interviews found that home was experienced as both a material and emotional place. Home was associated with (1) the material security of housing, including homeownership and the safety of suburbs and neighbourhoods; (2) a connection to multiple homes and the making of home in migration, such as when re-settling in a new country; (3) belonging to a family, including emotional connections to lost family members or acknowledging a supportive family and (4) religious, ethnic and cultural self-expression. This paper argues that researching meanings of home is relevant to social work as a discipline that espouses human rights and social justice because a sense of home is central to the politics of belonging to a safe community and society.

Local medical students can be instructors for life-saving first-aid courses for lay people: a descriptive study from Gaza

BackgroundBystanders can initiate a chain of survival in emergency situations by recognising the situation, calling for help, and initiating basic life support (BLS) and first aid. The lay population of Gaza has had little if any access to systematic BLS and CPR training. This study aimed to find out whether medical students could act as instructors to train 3000 lay people in BLS and CPR. MethodsWe selected 82 medical students from Al Azhar University to train as BLS and CPR instructors. Student volunteers who were in their third, fifth, and sixth year of medical school were chosen based on sex (to achieve equal numbers of males and females) and geography (for approximately even geographical distribution). Their training included 12 hours of BLS and CPR skills and 4 hours of didactic instruction, with a view to delivering 1–2 hours of basic training for lay people. Students responded to a written questionnaire with details of their demographics, training experience, motivation, and expectations. Teaching materials and methods were based on the European Resuscitation Council guidelines and followed a similar training model as that at The Arctic University of Norway (UiT). The board of the Faculty of Medicine at Al Azhar University approved the training and the study. Findings82 medical students completed training (mean age 21·7 years [SD 1·25]; 54% [44 of 82] female, 46% [38 of 82] male). Following training, 87% of students (71 of 82) responded to the questionnaire and 76% (62 of 82) took part in training lay people. Of those who completed the questionnaire, five reported having lost family members during Israeli military operations in Gaza (the questionnaire section on demographics included the impact of warfare on the students' lives). Almost two-thirds (54 of 71) had no previous practical first aid training. 49 of 71 (69%) described a sense of belonging and duty to the community as their most important motivation, and 56 of 71 (79%) hoped that their training would contribute to increased capacity and skills in the community's response to emergencies, especially during attacks. 55 training sessions have been completed so far, involving 1222 lay participants, mostly school students (including students at vocational schools) aged 13–20 years (75%; 922 of 1222). 62 student instructors have been active, with a ratio of 5·4 lay trainees to each student instructor. Of the trainees, 45% were male (546 of 1222) and 55 % female (676 of 1222). InterpretationWe have shown that local medical students are willing and capable of being trained as volunteer instructors to teach BLS and CPR, targeting lay people in serious conditions. The effects of such training on local resilience and patient outcomes need further study. FundingThe Palestine Children Relief (PCRF) funded the travel expenses of the trainers and provided medical students with first aid kits.

Gender Differences in Depression Levels at Refugee Camps in Duhok City, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The difficult conditions and threats that refugees face are making a great possibility for destroying their health physically and mentally. Refugees are at risk for psychiatric morbidity, yet little is known about their serious mental health disorders such as depression. National and international studies about Iraqi refugees still not enough to understand their serious problems in everyday life in the refugee camps and the future consequences of their physical and psychological conditions. Studying the depression levels among refugees of ISIS war and comparing the severity of depression between adult males and females was to be the aim of the study. Method: A comparative study design, with a purposive sampling of total (68) adult participants, (31 males and 37 females) in the refugee camps in Duhok city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq from September, 2016 to October, 2017 and a depression questionnaire for data collection process have been used. Results: little differences between males and females levels and the severity of depression were revealed. The mild level was higher in females (57.14) percent compared with males (42.85) percent, but males have reported higher results in moderate level (53.57) percent compared to females (46.42) percent. The big difference in the sever level of depression was (80.0) percent for females compared with only (20.0) percent for males. Recommendations: psychological first aid and interventions are required for the refugees especially for the members whom lost family member(s), property, job and body parts during the war.

Migration and Adolescent Health

Migration and Adolescent Health

“Hasta la Madre!”: Mexican mothers against “the war on drugs”

The Mexican government’s “war on drugs,” carried out with full support from the United States, has gained a visible media presence in the past few years, particularly because of extremely high levels of violence. This violence, however, has been largely represented in the media as a masculinized battle between cartels and military forces. Official discourses often insist that most victims are men directly involved in narco-trafficking, oversimplifying the nature of the violence (which is often created by military forces) and missing women’s presence among the victims as well in activist circles. This essay problematizes these misconceptions by examining the recent emergence of activism among Mexican women affected by the violence of the “war on drugs.” In particular, I analyze, first, how women who lost family members to this violence became active protestors of government policies and, second, the affective and political relations they forge as part of this activism. Based on fieldwork in Mexico City and the United States, I examine the trajectories and experiences of women involved in the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad) and The Mothers’ Network (La red de las madres). Specifically, I analyze the way that gender roles, kinship ties, and motherhood informs the experience of many activists but also the ways in which some of them make sense of their agency in their roles as sisters, daughters or indeed through their experiences of violence not expressed through an affiliation with kin.

Physician Behavior toward Death Pronouncement in Palliative Care Units.

There are few studies on bereaved caregivers' perceptions of physician behavior toward death pronouncement. Although previous research indicates that most caregivers are satisfied with physician behavior toward death pronouncement at home hospices, bereaved caregivers' perceptions of death pronouncement in palliative care units (PCUs) have not been investigated. The aim was to examine bereaved caregivers' perceptions of physician behavior toward death pronouncement in PCUs. This was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of bereaved caregivers who had lost a family member in a PCU. Measures were based on a previous study to assess bereaved caregivers' evaluations of physician behavior toward death pronouncement. Of 861 questionnaires sent to bereaved caregivers, 480 responses were analyzed. Overall, 86% of bereaved caregivers were satisfied with physician behavior toward death pronouncement. Logistic regression analysis revealed three predictors of caregiver satisfaction: "Polite behavior" (odds ratio [OR]: 0.12; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.03-0.46; p < 0.01), "Physician introduced himself/herself to family" (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-0.8; p = 0.02), and "Physician confirmed death automatically or routinely" (OR: 11.6; 95% CI: 4.7-28.4; p < 0.01). Caregivers whose family member's death was confirmed by the primarily responsible physician were significantly more satisfied than those whose family member's death was confirmed by an unfamiliar physician. Most caregivers who lost family members in PCUs were satisfied by the physicians' behavior toward death pronouncement. Politeness was one of the most important factors associated with caregiver satisfaction.

HIV normalization message and its implication on the lives of perinatally HIV-infected youth in Puerto Rico.

To examine the impact of the HIV normalization discourse on the life of a group of perinatally HIV-infected (pHIV-I) youth in Puerto Rico. A qualitative research study was conducted to explore the life experiences of pHIV-I youth in Puerto Rico. Twenty in-depth interviews were carried out among 12 women and eight men aged 18 to 30 years. Questions focused primarily on their life experiences and the meaning they ascribe to HIV. Interviews were analyzed and interrelationships, connections and patterns were assessed. Normalization messages were present in most of the participants' narratives. The majority considered their HIV diagnosis like "any other health condition" and most of them had a positive attitude towards life. When study participants positioned themselves from a social perspective, contradictions of normalization messages emerged. Some participants reported that because HIV is highly stigmatized, their rejections, discrimination and stigma experiences are different from those of patients with other chronic conditions. Those with HIV also face unique and difficult situations such as losing family members, dealing with a potentially fatal illness, and maintaining secrecy about their health conditions. While the normalization discourse is very common in the medical field, it does not necessarily translate into the personal and social spheres of HIV-positive youth. Interventions to assist patients in dealing with the social implications of the HIV condition are still needed.

Ebola ‘Done Done’—But What Has It Left Behind?

Sierra Leone, a country that has been recovering from a brutal civil war, was in 2014 struck by a new crisis in the Ebola epidemic. This article reports on interviews and repertory grids completed by two groups of people who had been affected by the epidemic: amputee footballers who had lost family members or friends, and burial workers. The interviews and grids are analyzed in terms of the professional constructs of personal construct psychology, highlighting the anxiety, threat, guilt, and shame experienced by the participants; similarities in their construing of the Ebola epidemic and the civil war; and their positive anticipations of the future.

In My Enemy’s House by C. Matas

Matas, Carol. In My Enemy’s House. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2013. Print. The book is about a Jewish Polish girl named Marisa who is trying to survive in World War 2 while over the years losing family members. First her papa then her sisters over time her little brother and mama eventually she travels to Weimar a town in Germany while the only family member she has left is sent off to be a slave she spends a few years in Germany, one year being a Polish slave and being abused and yelled at by her owner until eventually she goes back to Weimar and asks if she can go to a different family. She moves in with a family the father named Herr Reymann and the wife named Frau Reymann with three children named Charlotte, Hans and Monte. She spends a few years there everyone soon treating her like family after a while she moves back to her hometown in hopes of finding any family left. What I liked about the book: very interesting story thrilling suspenseful and overall fantastic. What I didn't like about the book: nothing really except at times it can be kinda violent. I rate the book as a 4.Recommended: 4 out of 5 stars Reviewer: JadisMy name is Jadis. I like horror, fiction, non-fiction I don’t mind they’re all awesome!! Especially Goosebumps. Fantastic stories the thrill is amazing the chills are exciting. I love to read because it gives you a chance to escape into another world. Amazing stories, hilarious adventures all super inspiring.